By Madyson Montoya
The San Jose State men’s and women’s cross country teams finished in fifth place in its season opener at the USF Invitational.
The women’s team had nine other competitors in its 6k race, while the men had seven in the 8k throughout Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
The Spartans got to face some top schools at their first meet of the season, such as Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Senior runner Jose Piña was SJSU’s top finisher coming in at third place with a time of 24:49.4, beating his last year’s time by nine seconds.
Less than a minute later junior Charlie Pope crossed the finish line followed by Huruy Zeratsion, taking home 17th and 18th place.
The men finished with 95 points, right behind host San Francisco which had 84 points.
Junior Jennifer Sandoval represented in the women’s race finishing in fourth with a time of 21:18.0. Sandoval was less than a second behind the first-place finisher, Christina Aragon from Stanford.
Right behind was Spartan sophomore Kai Bohannon in sixth place.
The women’s team earned a total of 102 points. First-place Stanford finished with an astonishing 24 points.
Both teams have nearly a month before they compete at the Capitol Cross Challenge in Sacramento on Sept. 29.
Follow Madyson on Twitter @MadysonMontoya