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BREA, Calif. - Behind an impressive debut by the newcomers, the UC Irvine women's cross country team finished seventh at the season-opening Mark Covert Classic Saturday at Carbon Canyon Regional Park.

The Anteaters placed ahead of San Diego State, San Diego, Long Beach State, UC Riverside, Pepperdine and CSUN. Cal Poly won the team title, and was followed by Cal Baptist and Arizona State.
 
"We showed tremendous improvement from where we were last year," UCI distance coach Chris Evans said. "To place seventh in a loaded field shows that we are a totally different team."
 
Freshman Hannah Chau led the 'Eaters as she was 29th out of 163 NCAA Division I runners. She completed her first collegiate 5000-meter race in 18:33.0.
 
Junior transfer Mariah Theologidy was right on Chau's heels, placing 33rd overall with a time of 18:37.4.
 
Junior Keely Boyd, who was the Anteaters' No. 3 runner, clocked in at 18:54.6 (50th) to beat her 5K personal record by over seven seconds.
 
"I was really impressed by how Hannah came out and attacked the race as a freshman," Evans said. "She will continue to learn and get better. Mariah finished five seconds behind her to really help our team, and Keely had probably the best race of her collegiate career. That all propelled us to a phenomenal finish, and put ourselves in a different place in the conference than we have been the past couple years."
 
Freshman Natalie Ewe added a strong showing, covering the course in 19:05.8, which was good for 63rd. Junior Anastasia Karnaze was also 77th at 19:25.2.
 
Senior Megan Mirkhanian (19:46.5) and junior Brenda Dorantes (19:53.8) rounded out UC Irvine's top-seven.
 
The 'Eaters return to action on Saturday, Sept. 15, when they head to the Inland Empire for the UC Riverside Invitational.