ACADEMY OF ART MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY TEAM WINS THE SAN FRANCISCO STATE INVITATIONAL
San Francisco, Calif. -- Friday, Oct. 10, the Academy of Art University men and women competed in the San Francisco State Invitational at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. The 25th annual meet kicked off with the men's 8K race at 4 p.m., followed by the women's 6K event at 4:45 p.m. The course primarily features a packed dirt surface on rolling terrain with scattered grassy sections.
A total of 219 runners represented 13 colleges and universities were scheduled to compete on Friday. In addition to the Urban Knights, this year's participants include members of the CCAA of which were Cal State Monterey Bay, Chico State and Sonoma State, Division I schools like Pacific, Sacramento State, San Francisco and San Jose State also ran. Two Midwestern schools, Creighton and St. Thomas (Minn.), will also make the trek to the Bay Area.
Led by a strong showing by the race winner, Edward “Killer” Kibet the Academy of Art University Cross Country team emerged from the San Francisco Invitational with their first big win of the season. Kibet bested US Olympic Qualifier Tom Kloos in his best time of the year (24.19) over the 8K Golden Gate Park Course. The Men's team won over seven other primarily Bay Area Universities with strong showings by Amos Maru who finished 2nd in the team scoring and Daveson Marinich who placed 4 to help garner the team championship. The Academy Harriers beat Chico State (low score wins) by a margin of 34 to 41 and the race was featured on the national internet site http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/234161-san-francisco-state-invitational. which introduced the Academy team as an up and coming emerging force to be reckoned with in the Pacific West. The girls team ran themselves into 10th place out of 11 teams with strong showings by Irineli Zamfir with a team 16th finish in 23.42 and Joyce Chepkirui in 48th place.
Chico State is the defending men's team champion, while USF captured the women's title in 2007.
The current course record in the men's 8K race was set by Giliat Ghebray, an unattached runner, with a time of 24:09 at the 2006 edition of the SF State Invitational, while Miriam Hodgins of UC San Diego established the women's 6K standard of 21:31 at the 2005 CCAA Championships.
Results
