April 11, 2008

SANTA CLARA, Calif.- The outdoor track team will be heading back to San Francisco this weekend to compete in the Johnny Mathis Invitational on Saturday, April 12th.

For the third time this season the team will be split up again, with several of the Bronco men traveling to Chico to compete in the Chico State Distance Carnival and Twilight Invitational while the rest of the team competes in San Francisco.

The team is definitely getting used to the idea of not having the entire team at one single event, when last weekend the team was split between the prestigious Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto and the Chabot Distance Carnival in Hayward.

Last weekend in Hayward, the Bronco women were unstoppable in the women's 1500 M, with a clean sweep of the top three finishes. Sophomore Stephanie Wilson took first in the event with a personal record of 4:47.89, with junior Noelle Lopez (4:48.92) and senior Danielle Miller (4:49.04) placing second and third respectively.

In the men's 1500 M, sophomores Alex Harkins and John Laughlin each broke their own personal records for the event, with times of 4:01.89 and 4:06.59. Freshman Robert Reid also had a third place finish in the men's 800 M with a time of 1:57.38.

Meanwhile at the prestigious Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Santa Clara was proudly represented by two veteran Broncos, senior Michael Delaurenti and junior Veronica Vazquez.

Delaurenti, who was coming off a big win at the Cal/Nevada Championships in the 3000 M steeplechase last weekend, broke his own SCU record time of 9:17.10 in the event. Despite the new record, Delaurenti was ten seconds away from the NCAA qualifying standard.

Half an hour later, Vazquez gave her all in the women's 5000 M heat, shattering her personal record by 16 seconds with a time of 17:24 despite running at an unfamiliar pace. En route to her new 5 K record, Vazquez also broke the SCU 3 K record, which was previously held by Shannon Bell at 10:27.12.