University Southern California Trojans
USC
Stanford Invitational
Erdelyi Finishes Seventh At Stanford Invitational
September 25, 2010 | Women's Cross Country
Sept. 25, 2010
PALO ALTO, CALIF. - Senior Zsofia Erdelyi placed seventh to lead the USC women's cross country team to a strong eighth-place finish at the Stanford Invitational today (Sept. 25) in a field that included nine teams ranked in the top 15 in either the West or Mountain Regions.
"I thought the one thing we didn't do well at Irvine we did well here which is get out aggressively," said USC cross country head coach Tom Walsh. "We were in the 36th out of 37 blocks here and obviously when you are that far on the outside it is important to get out well and we did. It was crucial for us to get positioning. A lot of schools didn't and it killed their race."
Erdelyi placed seventh with a time of 20:56 in her first race of the season, after taking 13th at the Stanford Invitational a year ago.
"Zsofia ran well and finished seventh against some very tough competition," said Walsh. "It was a great race for her."
Both senior Christine Cortez and junior Leah Gaeta aslo had strong races with Cortez finishing 31st with a time of 21:53 and Gaeta took 56th with a time of 22:27. Cortez' and Gaeta's times were their second best 6K times of their careers and were more than a minute faster that they ran in the 2009 Stanford Invitational.
"Christine Cortez and Leah Gaeta both had great races," added Walsh. "They fought hard and beat some good runners from other schools. I'm really proud of the way they competed."
Senior Dina Kitayama was USC's fourth finisher and placed 65th with a time of 22:42, just 12 seconds off her 6K best. Senior Zara Lukens placed 73rd and was USC's final scoring runner with a time of 22:49.
Freshman Jaclyn Walles had another impressive race taking 98th with a time of 23:08 in her first career 6K race. The Trojans' final runner was redshirt sophomore Jessica Lundin who placed 126th with a time of 23:40.
