CERES, CALIF. - On Saturday, September 10th, the Sonoma State cross country team headed south to compete in the annual Kim Duyst Invitational hosted by Stanislaus State. The Seawolves would partake in the twilight version of this year's race with an 8:30 PM start time. With a fresh group competing this week, head coach David Lawrence Jr. and his squad would earn a season best 2nd place team finish out of the five participating schools. Lawrence Jr. continues to take strides and help the program to some of its best success in recent memory as the 2nd place finish was his second top-5 team finish out of the last two seasons. 

Despite the team's success on the night, freshman Gianna Bomarito would steal the show with a record breaking performance of her own. The Fresno native would compete close to home and put on a show as she placed 3rd individually in the women's 6k and recorded a time of 21:42.6 to put her 5th all-time in the 6k event. Bomarito would swap places with fellow teammate Alex Boyle who ran the 5th fastest time in program history last season at the CCAA Championships. Bomarito would best Boyle's time by nearly 13 seconds and come just 1 second shy of breaking into the top-4 and beating Kathy Lenno's time of 21:41. Her time of 21:42.6 would go down as the program's fastest time in a 6k under 21:50 since 2001.  

Returner Sophie Rodriguez would have a solid showing as well and represent the second Seawolf runner to place inside the top-10. Her time of 23:48.6 would put herself in 9th place out of nearly 40 runners. Maddie Baytosh, Olivia Knobbe, and Abby Ribet would all follow in order in 11th, 12th, and 13th place putting five Sonoma State runners inside the top-15. Newcomer Alisa Rossetti would round out the scoring in her second event of the season with a 16th place finish. The 2nd place team finish would go down as the program's best finish at an event since the 2017 season where Sonoma State won their very own Seawolf Invite.        

The Seawolves will take a weekend off and compete in the William Jessup Invite on September 24th. Live stat/result links can be found at sonomaseawolves.com. Be sure to follow your Seawolves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest SSU athletics updates and information. Sonoma State athletics also has launched a new fan app in partnership with From Now On. Download the free app today in both the Apple and Google Play stores by searching Sonoma State Seawolves in the app store. @SonomaSeawolves | #NomaNation