By Mohamed Bafakih (@Moe_Fresco):
Jennifer Sandoval paced the San Jose State women’s cross country team to its third straight win while the men finished in the middle of the pack Saturday morning at the Bronco Invitational in Sunnyvale.
Battling the unhealthy air quality all week, Sandoval finished first in the 6k race hosted by Santa Clara University with a time of 20 minutes and 18 seconds.
Teammates Adilene Aldapa and Jeanette Zambrano finished a second apart as Aldapa came in fourth at 20:39.4 and Zambrano in sixth at 20:40.4. Freshman Kai Bohannon also had her best race of the year as she finished 10th.
The start time in both the women’s and men’s races were moved up an hour early because of smoke from the Santa Rosa fire affecting air quality in the South Bay Area. Sandoval said the early start forced some of her teammates to miss breakfast as it cut close to the race.
“I think it was good because we got the race out of the way and it was nice and cool,” Sandoval said. “We were able to go out there run and compete as a team, and I was very proud of every single of them for crossing the finish line.”
Sandoval finished third in the same event last year as a freshman while the Spartans as a team took seventh.
The closest runner to her this year at Baylands Park was Cal Coast Track Club’s Makenna Smith who came in at 20:33.3.
A total of 160 women and 22 schools were represented in the race, but for the third-straight event, SJSU’s opposition watched the Spartans finish ahead.
“Their consistency with everything just pulls them through,” said SJSU head coach Brad Wick of his team. “The air quality or earlier start, it doesn’t phase them… they went out there and executed a great race.”
As for the men, they have struggled to find consistency.
Huruy Zeratsion finished 27th out of 157 runners with a time of 24:26.6 while the Spartans as a team took 11th.
Wick said several guys have been dealing with the flu bug but expects them to be where they need to be four weeks from now when the NCAA West Regional Championship takes place.
Prior to that, SJSU will compete in the Mountain West Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. on Oct. 27.
“Hopefully we could handle the elevation and (there) is a lot less smoke in the air,” Zeratsion said.