The Chico State woman’s cross-country team found great success at the Stanford invitational on Sept. 26, finishing in fourth place and recording their third highest finish at Stanford. Finishing ahead of Chico State was Stanford, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Davis in the top three.

The team’s fourth place is the best they have finished at the Stanford Invitational in a decade, managing to take second in 2005 and third in 2004.

The ‘Cats were able to beat several Division I teams in the eight kilometer race, including UC Santa Barbara, Sacramento State, North Dakota State, San Jose State, UC Riverside, Cal State Northridge and UC Irvine. Among Division II teams, the ‘Cats held first place with an unofficial score of 62 overall.

The ‘Cats were led by Sadie Gastelum, who achieved a time of 21:26, finishing 21st overall, and second among Division II athletes. McCall Habermehl placed 37th and Quetta Peinado followed, placing 38th. Habermehl managed a time of 21:49, closely coming in just ahead of Peinado’s 21:50.

The women’s team also competed at the Garin Park Challenge on Sept. 26 with a different group of runners. Bekah Bahra finished 14th, leading the charge for Chico State and finishing the 3.15 mile course in 19:53. Lora James finished 63rd for Chico State with a time of 22:25, with Camila Turati finishing just three seconds behind her in the 66th spot.

The ‘Cats will be finishing the remainder of their regular season schedule at the San Francisco Invitational at Golden Gate Park on Oct. 9.

Kenta McAfee can be reached at [email protected] or @kentamcafee on Twitter.