Reno, Nev. – University of Nevada sophomore Samantha Diaz took second place to the lead the Wolf Pack at the 2010 Jim Vanden Heuvel Twilight Meet on Friday at Shadow Mountain Park in Sparks.
Diaz, from Shingle Springs, Calif. (Ponderosa HS) finished the 4,000-meter course in 15:11, second only to Stanford’s Alexandra Gits.
Diaz’s time was 1:20 better than her time in last year’s event. Gits set the course record with a time of 14:54.
Led by Diaz, Nevada placed third in the event with a total time of 1:22:37. Stanford, ranked 12th in the country, won with a total time of 1:18:28. UC Riverside (1:20:57) was second and Fresno State was fourth at 1:23:03.
“We had half of the squad have good races and half of the squad have OK races,” Nevada cross country coach Kirk Elias said. “That’s typical of a first event of the year. Overall I am very pleased.”
Diaz finished 15th at the 5K WAC Championships last season as a freshman and is appears poised to breakout this season as sophomore.
“Sam is going to be something special and you might say that she already is,” Elias said of Diaz. “She beat some really good people out there. I think she surprised herself, both positively and negatively. She got to a place that she had never been to before and it hurt. She had to deal with and maybe didn’t do the best job of it initially but then she turned it around and really closed out the race well.”
Jennifer McEntire was Nevada’s second finisher across the line, taking ninth place with a time of 16:11. Nicole Painter was 17th at 16:47. Tara Dines was 22nd at 17:13. Alissa Hood led Nevada’s freshman with a time of 17:15, 23rd overall.
“I thought that Jenniver McEntire had a great race for herself,” Elias said. “Nicole Painter, running out of our third spot, ran very, very well. Alissa Hood, I thought she just had a super night for somebody running her first collegiate race.”
Next up for Nevada is the Sundodger Invitational in Seattle on Sept. 18.
