The Santa Clara University women’s track team posted two all-time program marks in the 5,000 meters during competitions at the Stanford Invitational and Mike Fanelli Track Classic on April 4.
These performances are significant as they highlight continued improvement among the team’s distance runners and demonstrate their competitiveness in high-profile collegiate meets.
At the Stanford Invitational, Milaina Almonte recorded a time of 16 minutes, 35.04 seconds in the 5,000 meters. This result is now the fourth-fastest outdoor time for this event in Santa Clara history and placed her 58th overall among an elite field. Earlier in the season, Almonte ran a personal best of 16:25.89 during an indoor meet to start her season.
At San Francisco State’s Mike Fanelli Track Classic, Sydney Lim achieved another all-time mark for Santa Clara by running the 5,000 meters in 17:01.00. This placed her seventh on Santa Clara’s all-time list and earned her a spot as the top Bronco finisher at that meet with a placement of 38th overall. Teammates Olivia Schlieman (47th), Julia Russo (97th), and Josie Cahill (100th) also finished inside the top one hundred; Cahill was ninth in her heat.
Additional competitors included Kaylee Volner (105th), Alyssa Wyatt (127th), Aliyah Yearian (128th), Ramneek Kaur (130th), Sophie Smithstanza—who took fourth in her heat—and Rachelle Cormier who also completed the race. In other events at Fanelli Classic, Sigrid Brakenhielm and Kiera Kime both raced to third- and fourth-place finishes respectively within their section of the women’s 1,500 meters with times just three-hundredths apart.
In further results from these meets: Isabella Gonzalez ran to a finish of twenty-ninth place in the women’s ten thousand meters while Sarah Guralnick secured thirty-fifth place in the three thousand meter steeplechase event.
Looking ahead, Santa Clara will compete next at De Anza College’s Jim Linthicum Invitational before participating at Bryan Clay Invitational later this month.
