SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Milaina Almonte ran away from the competition Saturday, besting a field of over 150 runners by nearly 30 seconds as she won the individual title at the Bronco Invitational and led the Santa Clara University women's cross country team to a second-place showing at Baylands Regional Park.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Almonte won Saturday's six-kilometer race in a personal-best 20 minutes, 6.5 seconds, an outstanding 27.1 seconds faster than runner-up Addie Oversmith of UC Santa Barbara. It was Almonte's third personal record in as many races this season, now having lowered her 2025 best by more than 30 seconds from her season-opening 20:37.6 at the USF Invitational on Aug. 29.
   
• Almonte was out front from the get-go Saturday, running among a lead pack of six runners for the first two-kilometer loop. By the third kilometer, she had already created space between her and the pack, and by the final two km of the six-kilometer course, she had far outpaced the field.
   
• Sarah Guralnick gave the Broncos two in the top-five, coming in fifth in 20:38.8. Sydney Lim gave SCU three finishers among the top-30 with a 27th-place showing in 21:29.0. Josie Cahill (44th, 21:45.3) and Julia Russo (46th, 21:47.6) rounded out Santa Clara's top-five. Heidi Green (22:05.5) and Mariah Aragon (22:06.6) finished back-to-back in 60th and 61st, respectively, to cap the Broncos' top-seven. Santa Clara ran 15 total student-athletes in Saturday's invitational race, and ran several more in the open race as well.
   
• The Broncos finished second as a team with 110 points among the 16-team field. UC Santa Barbara took home the team title with 69 points. Santa Clara finished ahead of five other West Coast Conference opponents, including Pacific (7th), LMU (9th), Saint Mary's (11th), San Francisco (12th) and Seattle (13th).

COMING UP

• The Broncos will take one weekend off before competing at the 2025 WCC Championship on Nov. 1, hosted by Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash.