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By Joel Flom
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 10, 1996
Sophomore Amy Skieresz picked up where she left off last season and the men's and women's cross country teams swept the team titles at the Jammin' Invitational in Brea, Calif last weekend.Skieresz, who was the NCAA runner-up last season, cruised to a first-place finish with a time of 16 minutes, 57 seconds in the 5,000-meter race. She set a new course record and was 44 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Emabet Shifaraw of Southern Cal.
The men scored 40 points, beating its 13 opponents and taking the team title. O2 Debt, a club team, was second with 72 points, Cal Poly -Pomona was third with 119 and El Camino Alumni was fourth with 133 points.
The women defeated 14 other schools, scoring 28 points. UC-Irvine was second with 96 points, USC was third with 106 and Fresno State was fourth with 108 points.
"It was a good start for the beginning of the season," Arizona head coach Dave Murray said. "It really showed us where we are at."
Both teams were able to place four runners in the top 10 of each race.
The men's top finisher in the 8,000m race was junior Bob Keino, who placed fifth with a time of 24:59. The top finisher's time was 24:29, run by O2 Debt's Mike Tansley.
Keino won this event last season, but is still in the process of getting in shape this year. He got a late start on training this summer because of an injury that occurred near the end of last year's track season.
Other UA men's team finishers: senior Jon Pillow, eighth, 25:04; sophomore Jeff McLarty, ninth, 25:15; freshman Micheil Jones, 10th, 25:29; junior college transfer student Jon Lansa, 15th, 25:40; junior Chad Wenger, 19th, 25:52; and freshman Jeremy Lyon, 41st, 26:41.
Other UA women's team finishers: sophomore Emily Nay, fourth, 17:49; senior Viola Schaffer, seventh, 18:11; freshman Kristen Parrish, eighth, 18:17; junior Virginia Camacho, 15th, 18:43; junior Tone Bratteng, 16th, 18:45; and sophomore Kelly Chavez, 27th, 19:17.
"I was especially pleased with our younger runners, including Lyon and Jones, in their first meet," Murray said.
"Also, I was really happy with the performance of Jon Pillow. He showed much improvement from last season."
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