Cross Country | 9/24/2016 4:14:00 PM

Complete results: Men | Women
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – The San Francisco cross country team raced to impressive finishes at the 31st annual Roy Griak Invitational at Les Bostad Course on Saturday morning. Both squads were looking to earn valuable points in the race for an at-large bid to this year's NCAA Championships.

The women took to the 6K loop with gusto, proving they are a force to be reckoned with in the national landscape. The No. 20 Dons finished sixth in the Jack Johnson Women's Gold race, placing in front of numerous ranked squads including No. 17 Iowa State, race hosts No. 25 Minnesota and No. 29 Mississippi State. USF was edged by 12 points by No. 10 Boise State and No. 4 Michigan, who tied with 155 points on the day.

USF's top five scorers were all in the top 75 racers in the field of 345 women. Senior Charlotte Taylor recorded an eighth place finish with a time of 22:03 to lead the squad, and Marie Bouchard crossed the line in 16th in her first cross country competition for the Dons. Elena Burkard and Weronika Pyzik took 34th and 36th, respectively, and Tatjana Schulte rounded out the scoring with a 73rd place mark of 23:11.

West Coast Conference foe Portland took the team title, with three women finishing in the top 10. The Pilots also raced to the top of the team standings on the men's side, finishing with 69 points, with a 28-point margin separating Portland from second-place finishers Iowa State.

The USF men finished the Merrill Fischbein Men's Gold race in 12th as a team, besting many notable foes in the field of 29 teams. USF outdistanced ranked foes No. 19 Oklahoma and No. 22 Furman en route to the solid team finish.

Alex Short, running a 5:09 mile pace on the 8K course, led the Dons with a 21st place individual finish in the field of 275 men. The second man to cross for the Dons was Mohamed Aziz, clocking in at 26:03 to take 52, followed by other Top 100 finishes by Ben Alcock (26:18 – 75th) and Edward Shepherd (26:31 – 93rd).

The next marquee weekend on the horizon for the Dons is Oct. 14-15, where the women compete at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Friday, and the men take to the course at the Adidas Pre-National Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday.
 

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USF Results
Men – 12th place (347 points)
21. Alex Short – 25:36
52. Mohamed Aziz – 26:03
75. Ben Alcock – 26:18
93. Edward Shepherd – 26:31
106. Caleb McClain – 26:47
148. Ryan Driscoll – 27:19
176. Hugh Nicklason – 28:01
 
Women – 6th place (167 points)
8. Charlotte Taylor – 22:03
16. Marie Bouchard – 22:15
34. Elena Burkard – 22:35
36. Weronika Pyzik – 22:35
73. Tatjana Schulte – 23:11
111. Daryl Phill – 23:34
161. Kelsey Nielsen – 24:19