Fresno State Athletics
Cross Country Idle This Week After Winning CS Stanislaus Invitational
9/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 12, 2005
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FRESNO, Calif.
Bulldogs Idle This Week
The Fresno State across country team is idle this week. The Bulldogs opened their season two weeks ago at the CS Fullerton Invitational and finished 12th out of a 24-team field. Last week, the 'Dogs won their first invitational of the season by capturing the CS Stanislaus Invitational with 23 points. In the three-team 6K field, Fresno State had five harriers place among the top eight finishers. In addition, six Bulldogs cracked the school's all-time 6K list.
32nd Annual Stanford Invitational
In a meet that boasts more than 3,000 runners, Fresno State will participate in the 32nd Annual Stanford Invitational (6K) on Sept. 24 to close out the month. Held on Stanford's golf course, the Bulldogs will be making their fourth consecutive trip and 10th in the last 11 years. Traditionally a 5K race, the Stanford Invitational changed to a 6,000-meter course in 2003. Last year, the race was marked incorrectly and ended up being a 4K race. Junior Andrea Buckner (Yorba Linda, Calif.) was the highest finisher for Fresno State as she clocked 15:07 for a 39th place showing as the team placed 13th out of 21 teams. The 'Dogs highest placement at the Stanford Invitational was 11th out of 22 teams in 1995. The 5K race saw junior Danielle Nelson finish tenth with a time of 17:46.
Buckner Takes Lead
After finishing as the Bulldogs top runner in all seven races a year ago, junior Andrea Buckner continues her leadership form by finishing first for Fresno State in its first two invitations of the season. Last weekend at the CS Stanislaus Invitational, Buckner captured her first career invitational win when she ran a 6K time of 22:30, just seven seconds off her career-best mark set at the 2004 NCAA Regional. She became the first Bulldog to win an invitational since Kara June captured a pair of titles in 2003. At the CS Fullerton Invitational, she finished 19th (19:36.7) overall in a field of 253 runners in the 5K race. The two-time NCAA Regional qualifier owns career-best times of 18:18 (5K) and 22:03 (6K) with one blue ribbon and one second-pace finish.
Looking to Break Through
While six Bulldogs cracked the school's all-time 6K Top 25 list last weekend at the CS Stanislaus Invitational, Buckner will look to not only capture all-conference honors but to break the 18-minute barrier. With 5K season-best time of 18:18 in 2004, she will have her eyes set on being the first 'Dog to break 18:00 in since June (17:42, 2003 Cal Poly Invitational). In fact June was the first harrier to break the 18-minute barrier since Nicole Kulikov clocked 17:28 at the 1997 WAC Championship hosted by Fresno State.
The Schedule
There are five invitations on the schedule for the 2005 Fresno State cross country team. After the Stanford Invitational, Fresno State only has two meets in October with the UC Riverside Invitational (Oct. 1) and the Cal Poly Invitational (Oct. 15) before participating in the 2005 WAC Championship, which will be held Oct. 29 at the Eagle Island State Park in Boise, Idaho (Boise State, host).
Head Coach Joe Gonzales
In his first season as the head coach of the Fresno State women's cross country program, Joe Gonzales has been a longtime assistant with the Fresno State track program. Entering his sixth year as an assistant coach in charge of the distance runners, he also previously coached the Fresno State men's cross country program (2000-02). During his tenure as the men's cross country coach, Gonzales led the team to three top five finishes in the WAC, finishing fifth in 2001 and '02 along with a third place finish in 2000. Four runners also received All-WAC honors during that time. Prior to entering his coaching career at Fresno State, Gonzales served as a coach at Exeter Union High School. He began his coaching career at Exeter, where he started as a volunteer assistant for the cross country team in 1990. In 1995, he became the head cross country coach for both the boys and girls programs. Gonzales then served as the head track & field coach at Exeter from 1998-2000. In his 10 years at Exeter, he led the girls' cross country team to five league championships and a section title and the girls' track and field team to two league crowns. He guided the boys' cross country team to a pair of league titles. Gonzales graduated from Fresno State with a degree in liberal studies (2001).
CS Stanislaus Invitational in Review
The Fresno State cross country team captured its first meet of the season at the CS Stanislaus Invitational (6K) by finishing first out of three teams after recording 23 points ... The `Dogs, who had six runners crack the school's all-time 6K list, captured their first invitational title since Sept. 6, 2003 and that came at the CS Stanislaus Invitational as well when Fresno State won the five-team field ... Fresno State had its first five runners finish among the top eight as the Bulldogs have now captured the Stanislaus title for the sixth time in the last eight years ... Andrea Buckner captured her first career invitational title and gave Fresno State the meet's top individual finisher for the fifth time in the last eight years ... Buckner ran a meet-best 22:30 ... She is the first Bulldog to win an individual title since Kara June won the 2003 CS Stanislaus individual crown ... As the `Dogs top runner in the last nine meets, Buckner was just 27 seconds off her career-best 6K mark, which she posted at the 2004 NCAA Regional (22:03) ... Junior Zinzi Evans (Oakland, Calif.) and freshman Roxanne Sellick (Fresno, Calif.) finished third and fourth, respectively for Fresno State. Evans ran a personal-best 23:30 while Sellick clocked 23:31 ... Sophomores Patty Torres (Porterville, Calif.) and Marina Santana (Woodland Hills, Calif.) ran their first career 6K races ... Torres finished seventh overall with a time of 24:45 while Santa placed eighth (24:47) to account for Fresno State's scoring ... Junior Dina McPhail (Crotton, Md.) and senior Sunny Arada (Clovis, Calif.) finished 15th and 17th overall ... McPhail posted a time of 25:37 while Arada ran 26:42 ... Running unattached for Fresno State was junior Valeria Delgado (Clovis, Calif.), freshman Paloma Dominguez (Corcoran, Calif.) and freshman Sarah Thronson (Fresno, Calif.) ... Delgado and Dominguez finished among the top 10 runners in their first career 6K appearances as Delgado was ninth (24:48) and Dominguez was tenth (25:04) ... Thronson, who was just added to the Bulldogs' roster, finished 12th overall (25:27) ... Jumping into Fresno State's all-time 6K list was Evans (8th, 23:07), Sellick (12th, 23:30), Torres (22nd, 24:45), Santana (23rd, 24:47), Delgado (24th, 24:48) and Dominguez (25th, 25:04).
