2010 Sacramento State Hornet Jamboree Men's Individual & Team Results

2010 Sacramento State Hornet Jamboree Women's Individual & Team Results

Sacramento, CA -- Another important step was taken for the Urban Knight men's and women's cross country teams at Saturday's Sacramento State Hornet Jamboree. Throughout Granite Regional Park, the women's team raced as a pack and placed 7th with senior Irinel Zamfir taking 48th overall. An injury-plagued men's squad battled against tough Division I competition for a 5th place result including 3rd overall for junior Amos Maru.

Zamfir, the 2009 Pacific West Conference Newcomer of the Year, along with junior Cassandra Schumacher teamed up to lead the Academy of Art University charge on Saturday. Zamfir's time of 20:22 on the 5k course placed her 48th among four-year contestants while Schumacher followed closely behind with a 54th place result (20:39).

“It was so exciting to see the women really race with each other for the first time,” Assistant Coach Anne Ricketts said. “That's been our goal: focusing on the team and developing a pack. In the past few years, the runners have been spread out so it was a huge improvement with everyone keeping the same pace.”

Finishing less than 15 seconds after Schumacher was freshman Kylie Long who took 55th and posted a time of 20:53. Long improved on her outing at the USF Invitational by nearly 10 seconds. The fourth ART U finisher was junior Leticia Saldaña with a 21:41 mark in 61st place.

“Every girl gave one hundred percent and they maintained their calm while being exposed to running against Division I schools,” Coach Ricketts said. “When the conference meet rolls around, they're going to have a lot of confidence because they ran together very smoothly. In practice we've been pushing them to pace harder and to pull that next person with you and they executed that. They were much stronger and closer this week.”

Junior Stacey Toth, the team's captain, came back from an injury last week to cross the line right with Saldaña in 62nd place on Saturday. The pair was separated by one second as Toth finished with a time of 21:42.

“It was great to see Stacey captain her first race after working hard all summer,” Coach Ricketts said. “She is like the glue keeping everyone together. I know Stacey was working hard this summer and to have that translate into a race was exciting.”

With several Division I teams in the meet, Sonoma State was the only other Division II school to finish in front of Academy of Art University. The Hornet Jamboree was won individually by Krista Drechsler of UC Davis, however, UC Berkeley captured the team title. As a group, the Knights finished with an average time of 21:04 and 206 points to best three other teams including William Jessup and PacWest Conference opponent Dominican University.

“I was extremely proud of how women competed today,” Head Coach Charles Ryan said. “They stuck to the game plan and really executed it. Everyone ran well across the board and took positive steps towards competing in conference. It was by far the best performance I've seen.”

Hampered by injuries to three of their top five runners, the Urban Knight men's squad was paced by another top-notch performance from Maru. On a shorter four-mile course, the 2009 PacWest Runner of the Year earned 3rd place overall with a time of 20:13. Racing together with Maru for the early part of the race, junior Daveson Marindich would cross the line in 11th place (20:30).

“I'm proud of Daveson because we've been trying to get him to race from the front and not be afraid to lead,” Coach Ricketts said. “He and Amos stuck to their race plans and led for the first mile. We're working on fitness with Daveson so he can keep it up.”

For much of last season, Maru and Marindich combined their efforts to lead Academy of Art University and Coach Ryan was quick to recognize their talents in his first year at the helm of the program.

“I was very impressed with the men overall,” Coach Ryan said. “Obviously it was strong showing by Amos and Daveson and they'll clearly be the athletic leaders of this team, but I was proud of all the performances. The men are learning how to compete, use each other in the races, and they're not afraid to go into meets against Division I powerhouses like Cal, USF, and Sacramento State. To compete with and run with those schools shows a lot of character. They're clearly on their way to defending their title.”

Junior Mark Bretan followed up his strong USF Invitational with his second impressive outing en route to a 44th place finish with a time of 22:35. Following Bretan, junior Joey Villasenor turned in a 49th place result (23:21) for his first cross country race this season. The final Knights finisher was senior Geoffrey Cheruiyot who came in 51st with 23:29 mark.

“Mark has been awesome this season,” Coach Ricketts said. “He has improved so much and he's really stepping up in a time that we need them. Right now, Mark, Joey, Geoffrey, and Brandon [Howe] are definitely filling in very nicely in those gaps left by our injured players.”

As a squad, the men finished 5th with 129 points to top Saint Mary's among others. Overall individual winner was Jon Peterson who guided UC Davis to the team title.

“We don't have full team out there so we still trained through this race, but our focus was on closing the gaps that we had last week,” Coach Ricketts said. “This race was about pushing your teammates and from the results, you can see a lot of the guys finished together.”

Now two meets into the 2010 Academy of Art University cross country campaign, Coach Ryan and Coach Ricketts are continuing to see progress in both teams. And for his first year with the program, Coach Ryan is appreciative to be working with his dedicated Assistant Coach.

“Coach Ricketts is doing a great job with both the men and the women,” Coach Ryan said. “She has a good pulse for both teams and really pushes them do what they have to do. I'm very happy to have her helping the teams.”

Academy of Art University cross country has one week off before the 37th annual Stanford University Cross Country Invitational which takes place on Sept. 25. The men's race is scheduled for 10:50 AM followed by the women's race at 11:30 AM at the Stanford University Golf Course in Palo Alto, CA.