Gauchos Finish Third at Aztec Invitational

Sept. 14, 2008

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -

Danielle Domenichelli's ninth-place finish in a field of 161 runners paced UC Santa Barbara to a third-place team finish at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego on Saturday.

Domenichelli, a senior from El Dorado Hills, Calif., clocked an 18:09 on the 5,000 meter course. She finished 56 seconds behind Azusa Pacific's Jacky Kipwambok, the individual winner at 17:13. Freshman Ashlee Beechan ran an 18:34 to finish 20th, and junior Katie Voigtlander clocked an 18:43 to finish 27th. All seven UCSB runners who participated in the meet finished among the top-75.

As a team, the Gauchos finished third with 143 points, trailing only the team winner Azusa Pacific (96), and the second-place finisher Northern Arizona (102).

Santa Barbara returns to action in two weeks when it sends teams to the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn., and to the Stanford Invitational.