SAN DIEGO — The Santa Clara University women's cross country team saw two of its runners earn first team all-West Coast Conference honors Friday while leading the Broncos to a third-place team finish in the WCC Championship at Tecolote Shores North in San Diego's Mission Bay Park.
 
Senior Milaina Almonte finished second overall with a time of 20 minutes, 36.5 seconds, and Sydney Lim placed sixth in 21:26.4 to earn first team recognition. It was the second such accolade for Almonte, who finished sixth a year ago. Almonte was only five seconds behind the race winner, Latham West of Portland. San Francisco won the WCC team title, placing five among the top-nine, and all nine of its finishers among the top-15, to score 28 points.

Friday's team performance was the Broncos' best in 18 years. Santa Clara's third-place finish was its highest since also finishing third in 2008. SCU scored 84 points to finish third behind Portland's 57 points in second. It was the Broncos' lowest point total since that third-place finish in 2008, when it scored 81 points.
 
Almonte ran at the front of the race the entire way, eventually running in a trio with West and Faustine Chaboche of San Francisco. The three ran stride-for-stride for almost all of the competition's six kilometers, building a more-than 15-second gap between themselves and the rest of the field. Chaboche finally dropped off with only about 600 meters remaining, leaving West and Almonte to battle it out for the individual title. West pulled away to build a gap between her and Almonte, but the Broncos senior closed it on the course's final hill. But West used the downslope and hairpin turn to accelerate and pull away for the victory. West and Almonte beat Chaboche by 18 seconds, and were ahead of the fourth-place finisher by a whopping 33 seconds.
 
Lim stayed among the race's top-15 all race, running the first kilometer in 14th place before eventually surging to be in sixth place by the 5 km mark. Her time of 21:26.4 was 4 1/2 seconds ahead of seventh place, as she, too, built a comfortable cushion on the racers behind her.
 
Olivia Schlieman gave Santa Clara three runners among the top-20 with a 16th-place finish in 22:12.3. She, too, surged late, passing six runners over the second half of the race to move into the top-20.
 
The Broncos' No. 4-7 runners packed excellently, finishing within 8.9 seconds of each other. True freshman Julia Lentz placed 32nd in 22:56.5. Aliyah Yearian capped the Broncos' scoring in 36th place with a time of 23:05.1. Freshman Sophie Bair and junior Sarah Guralnick ran right alongside Yearian, with Bair placing 37th only one-tenth of a second behind Yearian (23:05.2), and Guralnick only two-tenths behind that in 38th place (23:05.4).
 
Ramneek Kaur placed 52nd with a time of 23:31.4, and Sigrid Brakenhielm was 61st in 24:12.4.
 
The Broncos will next compete at the NCAA Division I Cross Country West Regional on Nov. 13, in Sacramento. Fans can find all live coverage links on SantaClaraBroncos.com.