SAN FRANCISCO — The Santa Clara University women's cross country team had a strong season-opening performance Friday at the 32nd annual USF Invitational, powered by a second-place individual showing from Milaina Almonte at the Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Almonte set a cross country 6-kilometer personal best Saturday, finishing second overall in the 130-runner field with a time of 20 minutes, 37.6 seconds. She trailed race winner, Anna Buettner of host San Francisco, by less than 10 seconds. Buettner won Saturday afternoon's race in 20:27.8.
   
• Buettner had built a large gap between herself and the rest of the field, but Almonte chased her down, cutting down a more-than 38-second gap at the 4 km mark to fewer than 10 seconds and passing two Stanford runners in the process.
   
• Sarah Guralnick was the Broncos' No. 2 runner Friday, breaking the 22-minute mark and grabbing a top-25 finish in 22nd place with a time of 21:54.7. Julia Russo rounded out the Broncos' top-three in 48th place at 22:35.0.
   
• Sydney Lim (51st, 22:41.7) and Isabella Gonzalez (54th, 22:49.1) rounded out Santa Clara's top-five scorers. Freshmen Alyssa Wyatt (57th, 22:51.2) and Heidi Green (68th, 23:07.2) placed themselves among the Broncos' top-seven in their collegiate debuts Friday.
   
• Santa Clara finished eighth as a team with 172 points, only one point behind seventh-place Saint Mary's and ahead of West Coast Conference foe Pacific (9th) and South Bay rival San Jose State (12th). Many of the Broncos' top runners were resting Friday.

COMING UP

• The Broncos take a weekend off before traveling to the Central Valley on Sept. 13 for the Kim Duyst Invitational, hosted by Stanislaus State at River Oaks Golf Course.