X Country Runners in Final Major Regular Season Meet

Tackle Baylands Park Course in Sunnyvale

	Karina Ortiz had a breakthrough performance by running a personal best of 18:29 while placing 14th in the UCR Invitational on Oct. 1.

Oct. 14, 2005

Sunnyvale, CA - With the annual Big West Conference championships just two weeks away, the Cal State Fullerton cross country teams will be looking forward to a strong outing as they compete in the Santa Clara Invitational Saturday morning at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale.

Santa Clara welcomes a total of 14 teams to the meet, including men's and women's squads from UC Davis, Fullerton, Notre Dame de Namur, Saint Mary's and San Jose State. The women's teams from the University of Hawai'i and San Diego State will also compete in the meet.

"This close to conference championships, teams are looking to race at courses that aren't quite that demanding and Baylands Park fits the bill perfectly," said SCU head cross country coach Tom Service. "The course is relatively flat so the times will be pretty fast compared to some of the other meets we've competed in. At this point of the season, it's time to start looking ahead to the WCC's and the NCAA regionals so this will be a quality meet for all the teams involved to do just that."

The men's 8,000-meter race begins at 9:30 a.m. with the women's 5,000-meter competition starting at 10:15 a.m. Results will be available on SantaClaraBroncos.com by noon (Pacific) on Saturday.

Fullerton's women are coming off a victory at the UCR Invitational on Oct. 1. The injury plagued men's team is trying to field five healthy runners.

Fullerton has one other meet -- the Titan Invitational on campus on Oct. 21 -- before the Big West meet at UCR on Oct. 29.