SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – The Fresno Pacific cross country teams traveled down to Santa Clarita for The Master's Invitational, competing against 20 teams including several schools in the PacWest Conference. Fueled by multiple personal bests, the men's squad claimed seventh place, while the women's team secured a strong twelfth-place finish.

"There were a lot of positive takeaways from the meet today," said head coach Landon Miller. "It was good to see some in-conference competition to get a gauge of where we stand early in the season. Both the men's and women's teams are building momentum as we head into our big mid-season invite next week at UC Riverside."

The men's team finished in seventh with Daniel Galvez, Emanuel Salas, and Sawyer Pugliese leading the way for the Sunbirds. Galvez was the first Sunbird to finish and placed 24^th with a time of 25:41. Salas and Pugliese were in step to secure the 35^th and 36^th spot (26:06). Alesandro Escarzaga crossed the finish line at 26:09, making the top 40. Monte Moore finished 74^th (27:14) and Damian Smith closed it out for the Sunbirds (32:57). FPU's lead runner Galvez and Escarzaga both had course personal bests for the day. The men's team earned 207 points overall.

On the ladies' side, Alyana Cortez-Chavez was the sole Sunbird to make the top 50 in the meet. She claimed the 32^nd spot by running in at 23:21. The women captured the twelfth place spot and earned 360 points for the day. Gaby Ramirez and Emily Flores ran two seconds apart with times of 24:16 and 24:18, capturing the 59^th and 61^st spot in the race. Jaslin Arana had a course personal best with a finishing time of 23:21. Gianna Menchu, Abbigael Williams, and Jazlin Diehl crossed the finish line soon after.

NEXT UP: The Sunbirds will compete in the UCR Invitational on September 27th. The women's race starts at 7:15 am, and the men start at 7:50 am.