RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Friday night, the men and women's cross country team packed up the vans and traveled to Riverside to compete in the UCR Invite. This meet marked a great step into the upcoming season. The Toreros' Sam Mattice turned on the heat and took home 15th place, leading the women to an 8th place finish out of 23 teams.

Divided into four races, the men's invite and men's open both ran an 8k while the women's invite ran a 6k and the woman's open a 5k. In the men's race, freshmen Liam Burke ran 25:53.8, while sophomores Spencer Hoffman, Adam Bodine, and Matthew Beasley along with freshmen Max Pedrotti rounded out the men's top five.

The men's team placed 16th out of 27 teams and look forward towards the next competition. "We will need consistency from our Men's group in order for us to deliver at the championship level, we did not have all contributors on board today, but feel that we can make the necessary adjustment going forward to make the statement that we need at the peaking level," said coach Will Guarino.

Sam Mattice led the women in the 6k invite with a 21:36.9 and was followed closely by junior Ashton Padberg and freshman Julie Giannini. Sam Mattice also ran the third fastest all-time clocked by a USD women on the Ag/Ops course.

Furthermore, Ashton Padberg, Julie Giannini, Andrea Hughes and Kalin Padberg ran among the Toreros top ten times for this course ever as well. The women's team also brought home a 4th place victory in the open 5k which was led by Mary Tenuta who ran a personal record of 19:12 placing 30th. "The Women picked up the pace today," said Coach Will Guarino. "They raced much better then they did two weeks ago, but I do feel that they can race better today, we made some minor mistakes, but feel good that we are making strides to improve our racing position."

This Invitational marks another meet completed and another meet closer to the Paul Short Invite in Pennsylvania, which the Torero's will participate in early October.

Mens Invite 8k Results 80 Liam Burke 25:53.8 72 89 Spencer Hoffman 26:03.0 98 Adam Bodine 26:06.5 114 Matthew Beasley 26:23.2 125 James Pedrotti 26:29.9 131 Matthew Smith 26:34.4 146 Connor Brandt 26:50.1 185 TJ Hodges 27:30.1 195 Ryan Lesansee 27:38.3

Mens Open 8k Results 31 Andre Sanchez 27:11.7 58 Johnathan Garcia 27:44.9 103 Malik Hayes 28:48.9 110 Justin Brown 29:02.3 115 Christopher Spinney 29:16.7

Womens Invite 6k Results 15 Samantha Mattice 21:36.9 25 Ashton Padberg 21:53.9 36 Julie Giannini 22:04.0 56 Andrea Hughes 22:30.1 74 Kalin Padberg 22:41.3 82 Stephanie Lapidus 22:48.5 88 Allison Lynch 22:53.8 104 Sydney Olagaray 23:05.8 139 Sarah Kapple 24:21.5

Womens Open 5k Results Mary Tenuta 19:12 38 Ashley Mitchell 19:18.5 44 Alex Salazar 19:25.8 28 50 Dani LeMieux 19:30.1 58 Shannan Conlon 19:36.6 68 Claire Miller 19:41.9 81 Rita Kuckertz 19:59.4 83 Cori Van Dyke 20:00.5 52 84 Melissa Mello 20:00.7 89 Alissa Barraza 20:10.0 94 Olivia Houser 20:14.1 117 Courtney Clark 20:39.4 131 Olivia Gonzalez 20:58.2 179 Hannah Talpash 21:54.1