Cross Country runs on

Eric Mencarini took first place overall for the third time this season as he led a battered Sac State cross country team to second and third place finishes at the San Francisco State Invitational on Saturday.

Mencarini finished the five-mile race in 26:21, 12 seconds in front of junior Craig Farley who place second overall in the meet. It was the first time the Hornets placed one-two this year.

After taking a week off by deleting the Stanford Invitational from their schedule two weeks ago, Sac State continued to be plagued by injuries at the San Francisco State Invitational with their top woman runner and two of their top five men hurt.

All three of the key runners went down at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego on Sept. 18.

The Hornet men finished second as a team behind Fresno State, who dominated the competition with a team score of 29. Sac State finished with a score of 57, edging Stanislaus State by three team points.

Mike Santarosa was the third Hornet runner to cross the finish line, taking 32nd place overall and finishing two-and-a-half minutes behind Mencarini. Sam Ramirez followed, taking 37th place with a time of 29:19 for the five miles.

The men ran without top runners Noel Nelson and Andrew Golden, who are out with knee injuries. Head coach Joe Neff is not certain when they will return.

“We don’t know how long they will be out,” Neff said. “It may be until the end of the season.”

The women’s team placed third in a field of seven schools.

Freshman Molly Peterson finished first for the Hornet women, taking eighth place overall behind runners from Cal Berkeley, San Francisco State and Stanislaus State. She ran the two-and-a-half mile race in 15:56, 28 seconds behind leader Erin Belger from Cal.

Ann Koscki and Melissa Madeson finished in 15th and 16th places, respectively and just over a minute off the pace with times of 16:32 and 16:34.

Katie Fontana, the top runner for the Sac State women, continued to nurse her foot injury from San Diego and did not run in the meet. She has not run in the last two meets.

Coach Neff was concerned about the team’s injured runner.

“Her injury is just not responding to treatment and we have no idea when she will be back,” Neff said.

He was satisfied with the team’s performance in San Francisco, but hopes for a healthier team in upcoming meets.

“It would be nice to be 100 percent for once this year,” Neff said. “Hopefully it will be at the Conference in three weeks.”

The team will travel to Crystal Springs to run in the Bronco Invitational next Saturday.