Oregon State Cross Country Travels to Compete at Bronco Invitational

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State cross country team sat idle last week, but returns to action at the Bronco Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 14 hosted by Santa Clara University in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"Last week, we had our biggest week of work this season. It was great that the athletes made it through it, the girls are getting better every single day," began Oregon State cross country head coach Louie Quintana. "They know this another challenge to continue to move this whole thing forward. Going to this meet understanding that we have a chance to have a top-3 finish excites them."

The Beavers are projected to field an 11-woman contingent on Saturday; graduate student Colette Richter; seniors Holly Cavalluzzo and Kala Kopecek; juniors Nicole Goecke, Sam McKinnon and Juliana Mount; sophomores Emily Bacon, Greta Van Calcar; freshman Rebecca Ledsham, Audrey Lookner.

The men's 8,000-meter race begins at 8 a.m., with the women's 6,000-meter race following with a start time of 8:45 a.m. The meet will be held at Baylands Regional Park.

The course at Baylands consists of low-cut grass and hard-packed dirt paths with a few short, paved sections.

This is the deepest field that the Beavers have run against all season. The Bronco Invitational will feature teams from 28 schools across the country.

"We've run in some small-field races like the Dellinger, really fast off the gun, top-heavy, four or five really good teams at the meet, and we needed to be exposed to that because of conference championships," said Quintana. "One of the reasons we are going down to the Bronco Invite is to get exposed to a bigger field."

Nine USTFCCCA regionally ranked teams will be in attendance in addition to Oregon State. San Francisco (3rd West Region/6th NCAA), California (7th West Region), Lamar (7th South Central Region), Montana State (9th Mountain Region), Montana (11th Mountain Region), UCLA (11th West Region), Cal Poly (12th West Region), UC Santa Barbara (13th West Region), Utah Valley (15th West Region).

Other teams in attendance; CSU Bakersfield, CSU Fullerton, Central Arizona, Fresno State, Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Loyola Marymount, New Mexico State, Northern Colorado, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland State, Sacramento State, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Seattle, Southern Utah, St. Mary's.

Oregon State is currently ranked 10^th in the USTFCCCA West Region Poll. This is the highest regional ranking since the 2013 season.

"The big focus for the first meet at the Sundodger Invite was composure, learning it when things get hard," said Quintana. "The second meet, the Dellinger Invite, was purposeful because we knew the race was going to go out fast and it was going to be tough, so we had to be purposeful and composed.

This race's focus is commitment, because we know that we have a good group of athletes, and if we stay committed to one another throughout this race then we will have a chance to be competitive."

New Record: Juliana Mount not only set a new personal record for a 6,000-meter event at the Dellinger Invitational, she set a new school record. Mount crossed the finish line with a time of 19:36.7. The previous record was a 2016 mark set by Emily Weber.

Personal Best: More than one athlete set a personal record at the Dellinger Invitational. In total, eight individuals set PRs including Juliana Mount. Holly Cavalluzzo (20:15.4), Sam McKinnon (20:27.9), Audrey Lookner (20:28.1), Nicole Goecke (20:41.3), Kala Kopecek (20:42.0), Colette Richter (21:09.1), and Rebecca Ledsham (21:21.1).

Regional Rankings: The Beavers were ranked 10th in the West Region of the Regional Rankings released on Oct. 2 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Regional rankings are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region.

Nine Pac-12 teams were ranked in the West Region: Oregon (1), Stanford (2), Washington (4), California (7), Arizona (8), Arizona State (9), Oregon State (10), UCLA (11), and Washington State (15). Two Pac-12 schools were ranked in the Mountain Region: Colorado (1), Utah (5).

This is the highest regional ranking for the Beavers since the third week of rankings during the 2013 season.

Up Next: The Beavers return to action on Friday, Oct. 27 at the Pac-12 Championships. The event will be held at the Springfield Golf Club in Springfield, Ore., and will be televised and streamed live by the Pac-12 Network.

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Oregon State Cross Country Travels to Compete at Bronco Invitational

Players Mentioned

Emily Bacon

Holly Cavalluzzo

Nicole Goecke

Kala Kopecek

Rebecca Ledsham

Audrey Lookner

Sam McKinnon

Juliana Mount

Colette Richter

Greta Van Calcar

Emily Weber

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