SUNNYVALE, Calif. (UNLVRebels.com) – Sophomore Natalia Ruiz set a new school record in the women's 6k at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational Saturday morning with a time of 19:49.0, shattering the previous program record set in 2000 by 49 seconds (20:38.0).
The race was contested at Baylands Park in the Golden State and marked the end of regular-season for the UNLV cross country team. Ruiz, a psychology major, concluded the season pacing the Scarlet & Gray in all four contests this season.
Known as one of the most competitive and challenging races on the west coast, the Rebels competed against 225 individuals from 16 programs all across the west coast including MW rivals San Jose State, UNR and Fresno State, as well as Pac-12's Cal, Stanford and USC.
The Madrid, Spain native was aggressive at the start and went out with the lead pack finishing fourth overall, less than four seconds away from third and over six seconds ahead from fifth place. The first place time for this race was 19:36.2, less than 13 seconds separated first place from fourth.
Junior Isabella Schrader outperformed her previous season best time from last week's competition with a new season best of 22:27.1, followed by juniors Ellen Wise and Makenzie Moss who came in with times of 23:10.7 and 23:27.4, respectively. Freshman Abigail Danlag finished with a time of 23:34.8, followed by senior LaKyla Yazzie with a mark of 25:29.9.
QUOTABLE: "I'm really proud of Natalia for breaking the 22-year old record. Natalia always makes me proud when she competes, but taking down records is special. This is well deserved, it's not easy running cross country in the desert. Natalia does all the right things, takes care of herself and the small details like a true elite athlete.
Natalia went out hard and was fearless throughout today's race. Glad she was able to be rewarded with breaking the program record.
The team has been working really hard the last few weeks. I'm really proud of how they competed, it was a tough course but the conditions were perfect and they took advantage despite some having tired legs. Now it's time to get ready for the conference competition in two weeks." - head coach Dorian Scott
NEXT FOR THE REBELS: UNLV will compete at the MW Championships which are slated for Oct. 28 in Laramie, Wyoming, followed by the NCAA Regionals two weeks later in Seattle, Washington on Nov. 11.
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