2013 Bronco Invitational Results (men's)
2013 Bronco Invitational Results (women's)

Photo Gallery (images by Rob Garcia)

Santa Clara, CA – It was another great progression for ART U Cross Country at Santa Clara's 2013 Bronco Open on Saturday morning. The final stop for the Urban Knights prior to the Pacific West Conference Championships saw Nicolas Rifflard take first place overall (all divisions) to help the men to a #1 team finish among NCAA Division II programs while Arianna Michaels came in fifth to contribute to the women's 15th place result.

"Going into this meet, we wanted to use it as a dress rehearsal for the conference meet," associate head coach Torrey Olson said. "It was about giving that hard effort, being competitive, and trying to put it all out there so that we're not doing that for the first time at the conference meet. The field today was relatively similar to conference in terms of depth and size. It was a good experience for us."

Rifflard stayed strong the whole way through the 8k course at Baylands Park, finishing with a new personal record of 24:59.5 that was third among all runners. In a large group of unattached competitors at the front of the pack, Rifflard kept at a 5:02 pace to the finish line.

"I felt great today," Rifflard said. "It was pretty warm, but my goal was to win this race and it's my goal to win conference as well."

"We had Nicolas Rifflard competing up front for the win," Coach Olson said. "This is his first real cross country season and it has been great to see actually get to have that experience. He's very competitive and he's a gamer. He goes out and runs the race presented to him. He was in it the whole time [today] and ran very even. He's excited and I'm excited for him."

Adding to the ART U attack, Jack Nevins captured fourth among non-DI results with a new personal record of 25:47.8. He was more than five seconds ahead of Grand Canyon's top runner. Austin Esposito, who comes off a PacWest Freshman of the Week honor, was again on his game with a personal record 25:55.8 that got him into sixth overall among DII runners.

"It was hot and pretty fast [today]," Nevins said. "We went out at a good pace, I'd say 25:00 flat pace and felt positive out there. We performed well on a tough week and it's definitely something we use to prepare for conference."

Continuing Academy of Art's string of PRs, Conrad Larson went 26:52.4 for 35th overall. It was over 50 seconds lower than his previous collegiate best. The #5 finisher for ART U was Temarius Walker at 27:04.2 (41st) while Logan Means added a 27:20 for 51st and Nicholas Alexander dropped his top time again, coming in 30:29.5 (109th).

Just two Division I teams, Santa Clara and Colorado, competed in the Bronco Open, but their collective scores were far below Academy of Art. The ART U men's team averaged a 26:08 on the 8k course and placed three of its top five in the first six qualifiers overall.

"I saw a lot of good effort [today]," assistant coach Nathan Warstler said. "What I really enjoyed was how we got early position in the men's race. That was fantastic. We're slowly becoming a team and it's exciting to watch."

Building off her season best at SF State, Michaels dropped down to a new career best of 22:58.1 en route to fifth overall among non-DI competitors. She finished 11th out of the entire race, wedged in between a pair from Santa Clara. Kaelyn Harbison was not far behind Michaels once again, going 23:21.2 for a ninth place result.

The remainder of the women's runners included Kayla Pritchett at 93rd overall out of non-Division I's with a 28:11.2 that serves as her new career best as an Urban Knight. Mistic Scott was the fourth ART U runner at 102nd place (29:45.4), followed by Keanna Moody in 108th (31:20.4), and Dierra Haven at 109th (31:52.5).

At 15th overall as a team, ART U finished ahead of the PacWest's Notre Dame de Namur, Mills, and California Maritime. The top Division II team result was Grand Canyon and the best non-Division I finish went to Simpson's Rebekah Studebaker at 22:26.1.

In the Bronco Invitational women's 6k race earlier in the day, Urban Knights alum and volunteer assistant coach Jenny Bergren turned in a new career best of 20:53.8 which had her 14th overall ahead of Loyola Marymount's Danielle Shanahan.

Academy of Art now turns its attention to the PacWest Conference Championships which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Stafford Lake in Novato, CA. Dominican University will serve as hosts this season.