The Collegian

Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Courtesy of www.smcgaels.com Peter Mathieu '08 is confident in his teams' ability to surprise at the West Coast Conference Championships.

Just like a cross-country race is a long, laborious, and grinding process, the Saint Mary's cross-country teams continued their season after a promising performance in Chico, but came out shaky in the opening sprint of the Aztec Invitational in San Diego on Saturday.

In the 63rd Aztec Invitational in Balboa Park, each of the cross-country teams had two finishers crack the top 100, with Mario Mendoza '09 (27:18) crossing the finish line in 55th and Karrie Hagedorn '08 (19:08) in 36th place as the top placers for the Gaels in the men's and women's teams respectively.

By the final tally, the men's team finished 12th, but only a single point away from Mesa in 11th. The women's team fared similarly by finishing thirteenth, only two points from UNLV. On the plus side, the women's squad did finish before West Coast Conference division rival UC San Diego.

"This is just the training part of the season," said Peter Mathieu, the realistic but optimistic men's team captain. "We didn't run as well as we could have," Mathieu said, along with, "[The results] should be taken with a grain of salt at this point."

Other notable finishers for the men include Nick Shea '09 (27:36) in 66th, Mark Blucher '11 (29:17) in 95th, and David Stiles '09 (29:49) in 97th in the 8K Invitational that featured teams from five states as far away as Arkansas, who actually won the team award in the women's race.

The top Saint Mary's finishes for women in the 5K race includes Tess Grannemann '11 (19:36) in 55th and Madison Dangler '11 (21:21) in 118th.

Despite the apparent setback in San Diego, Mathieu was confident for the future of the team. "The conference meet is where we are going to make our statement," said Mathieu confidently.

This is the type of confidence that surely will inspire both squads' remainder of the seasons, as they are set for races in each of the next four weeks, including a trip to Hawai'i. The long haul has just begun, and the 11-combined upper classmen on the teams know what kind of effort it will take to succeed the grueling upcoming weeks, and the culminating West Coast Conference Championships in Belmont Springs on October 27.

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