Men's & Women's XC Finish Fifth At Santa Clara

Saturday, October 19

Sunnyvale, Calif.

10:00 AM

University of Richmond

Santa Clara Bronco Invitational

10/19/2013 | Cross Country

By: Richmond Athletics

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - The Richmond cross country team continued its season Saturday at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational. Both teams managed to edge out a fifth-place finish. Senior's Jason Skipper and Jill Prentice led the way for the Spiders.

“I'm pleased with the team effort today,” said head men's coach Steve Taylor. “They raced hard throughout and made a lot of improvement over two weeks. It was a great meet and our athletes handled the pace that their work outs indicate they are capable of. We have two weeks to fine tune our efforts heading into the A-10 championships."

On the women's side, Richmond had four Spiders finish in the top 40 of the 6k event, including Jill Prentice (11th, 20:46.9), Marisa Ruskan (17th, 21:01.4), Tara Hanley (27th, 21:16.6) and Allison Stapleton (37th, 21:23.3).

Elizabeth Schinksi, Taylor Clevinger, and Molly Parsons, Maddie Wittich and Emma Nowak also participated for the Spiders.

“Today we made progress,” said head women's coach Lori Taylor. “We showed good strength up front and closed our three-four gap with Stapleton's effort in her first race with the team this season. We need everyone back and healthy in two weeks and this was a good starting point.”

As a team, the Richmond women tallied 116 points, which left them three points behind the fourth-place finisher, Idaho. Loyola Marymount won the race with 53 points.

The Spider men were able to clock two top 40 finishers of the 8k event, Jason Skipper (14^th, 24:11.7) and Mathew McKenna (34^th, 24:35.9).

Jordan Chavez, Ryan Lee, Matthew Groff, Paul Myer, Andrew Brennan and Patrick Love also competed for the Spiders.

The Richmond men finished fifth with 171 points, 35 points behind fourth-place finisher, Stanford. Loyola Marymount won the race with 84 points.

The Spiders return to action Saturday, Nov. 2 when they host the Atlantic 10 Championships at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va. Start time is scheduled for 10 a.m and the event will be streamed live by SpiderTV

Stay updated on all the latest Richmond Cross Country news on RichmondSpiders.com and by accessing Spider Athletics' mobile apps on your Smartphone or tablet. More in-depth coverage can be found by following Head Coach Steve Taylor on Twitter and by reading his blog. The Spiders also have their own Facebook page and have launched their own YouTube Channel as well.

2013 Santa Clara Invitational (October 19) 
Richmond 5th (Men's Team-8K Average - 24:47.9) 

Name Time Place  

Jason Skipper (Sr.) - 24:11.7  - 14th

Mathew McKenna (So.) - 24:35.90  - 34th

Jordan Chavez (So.) - 24:49.5 - 55th

Ryan Lee (Sr.) - 25:04.7 - 77th

Matthew Groff (Jr.) - 25:17.5  - 94th

Paul Myer (Jr.) - 26:04.3 - 154th

Andrew Brennan (Fr.) - 26:34.0  - 166th

Patrick Love (Jr.) - 26:37.3 - 167th

2013 Santa Clara Invitational (October 19) 
Richmond 5th (Women's Team-6K Average - 21:15.9) 

Name Time Place  