CHICAGO — Junior Milaina Almonte placed among the top-35 Saturday in an ultra-competitive field to lead the Santa Clara University women's cross country team at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational at the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Almonte set a 6-kilometer personal best for the second time in as many races this season, finishing in 20 minutes, 28.11 seconds. She ran her previous personal best at the season-opening USF Invitational on Aug. 29 in 20:37.6. The junior made a huge push between the three- and five-kilometer marks, gaining 22 places while running those two kilometers two seconds faster than her previous two. Her negative splits continued over the final kilometer as she passed five more runners and dropped her pace by 20 seconds.
   
• Almonte was the eighth finisher from a non-Power-4 school, and only finished behind 34th-place Nicole Bridges of Cal Poly by 0.75 seconds. Almonte was nearly a minute ahead of her teammates, with Sarah Guralnick coming in as the Broncos' No. 2 runner in 87th place with a time of 21:24.23. Olivia Schlieman gave Santa Clara three runners in the top-100 with a 96th-place finish in 21:39.64. Sydney Lim (108th, 22:18.37) and Julia Russo (118th, 22:54.54) rounded out Santa Clara's top-five.
   
• Santa Clara finished 15th in the team standings in a race that featured eight nationally ranked teams. West Coast Conference preseason favorite Gonzaga, who received votes in the latest national poll, was also in attendance, finishing third overall. No. 2-ranked NC State won the team title with 34 points and four finishers in the top-10. NC State's Hannah Gapes won the individual race in 19:19.69.

COMING UP

• Santa Clara next competes on Oct. 18 at its own Bronco Invitational at Baylands Regional Park in Sunnyvale, Calif. The women's invitational race starts at 9:30 a.m., and the women's open is scheduled for 11 a.m.