Laura Hollander did it again.
Marking her third straight victory, Hollander pulled ahead in the 48-team Wisconsin Adidas Invitational and placed first in Cal Poly’s name. Her record setting time of 19 minutes, 33 seconds was enough to help Cal Poly place 32nd on the womens side.
There were 28 ranked teams, or teams receiving votes, in the 48-team event. With their finish, the Mustangs placed ahead of No. 23 Indiana (35th), Virginia (40th) and Dartmouth (44th), which were all receiving votes.
Senior Vanessa Hancock was the second Cal Poly player to cross the finish line. She placed 89th with a time of 20:46, a personal best. Along with Hollander and Hancock, Meghan Breadmore placed 177th, sophomore Savannah Pio placed 231st and freshman Rachel Bush placed 257th.
“I think we did really well, considering it was our first 6k of the season,” Hancock said. “For a lot of the girls on the team we have a really young group, so for some of them it was their first or second 6k. I think we ran really well and collectively as a group.”
David Cardona, who finished in 24:07, helped lead the Cal Poly men’s team finish 30th overall in the race. Of the 45 teams in the men’s event, 24 were nationally ranked or receiving votes.
“It was definitely a race about going out and running with the best and getting the experience to race for the championship races that are coming up soon,” Cardona said.
Junior Chris Fias was close behind finishing 83rd with a time of 24:13. Sean Davidson was the third Cal Poly runner to finish and ended in 110th place (24:20). Sophomore Mitchell Moriarty finished in 190th (24:40) and senior Michael Johnson finished in 222nd place (24:54).
The Wisconsin Adidas Invitational is a much larger race than an average event. Typical events range from 13 to 28 teams participating, according to Cardona. With such a large mass of people running at high speeds, competing can get tricky.
“It definitely felt like I was gonna be boxed in and it was going to be hard to pull ahead. My strategy was different than my teammates’ so I didn’t have too much trouble,” Cardona said.
Overall, Stanford took first on the mens side, Iona came in second, Oklahoma came in third and Texas finished fourth. For the women, Iowa State took first, Stanford took second, Arizona placed third and Washington earned fourth place.
Tayler Duprel contributed to this report.