Despite the early morning fog and cool temperatures at Golden Gate Park's Lindley Meadow, the sun soon came out and shined bright on the race course and SF State cross country.

Led by Chikara Omine's second-place finish in the men's race, the Gator men placed a stellar second at the 2004 SFSU Gator Invitational behind Sacramento State University. The entire team ran personal bests, but even their success couldn't salvage a last-place finish for the Gator women.

The men's race was extremely close from start to end with the top three finishers within four seconds of each other. Omine ran alongside Sacramento State's Juan Vazquez for most of the 8k course. With about 40 yards until the finish line, Vazquez sprinted past Omine to take first-place with a time of 25:35.60. Omine finished with a time of 25:36.40, a new personal best.

“I'm really happy with the way the season is going,” said Omine, a senior accounting major. “It shows the program is working well.”

Cal State Hayward's Jeff Gehringer made a late charge against Vazquez and Omine, finishing third with a 25:38.60 time. Sacramento State's Dominic Vogl and David Blue finished fourth and fifth rounding out the individual medal positions. Sacramento State had Vazquez, Vogl and Blue all in the top five, and five runners in the top eight overall. With team scoring based on the fewest points for the highest-place finishers, Sacramento State ran away with the men's invite with 24 points.

SF State would finish 31 points back for second place. Batbileg Bor (10th), Paul Boyer (13th), Sandino Moya-Smith (14th), Mikhail Osipov (16th) and Andrew Chain (18th) rounded out the rest of the Gator men's field.

“Chikara is the man,” said freshman Luis Cortes. “The whole team improved a lot. It was awesome!”

The women's 5k race was not as competitive as the field separated quickly and the Lady Gators lost the lead pack. Junior Christine Perez was tops on the team finishing 20th with a time of 19:39.20.

“The meet went very, very well,” said assistant coach Lache Bailey. “It's going to ignite a lot more confidence for conference.”

Cal Berkeley finished with 36 points to take the women's top spot, only two points ahead of the University of San Francisco. Other Gator placements included Karin Hansen (22nd), Tehani Thompson (29th), Marisol Miranda (34th) and Brittany McBride (35th).

USF's Luzy Miller ran a smart and well-paced race finishing at 18:23.30, more than 16 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Whitney Russell (Cal-Berkeley). Whitney Schmucker (3rd, Cal-Berkeley), Ariana Morey (4th, USF) and Diane Reed (5th, Cal-Berkeley) completed the individual medal positions.

“I think it was a huge step forward for us,” said head coach Chris Lundstrom. “We had great times on the men and women's sides. Our women were really in the thick of the race even though they didn't place that well.”

With next week's Folsom Invitational, the last meet before the conference championships on October 23rd, improvement remains at the top of the team's priorities.

“It (the meet) shows we're improving, and it gives the team more unity,” Miranda said. “I think our workouts are good, and our coaches are coaching us on our level.”