Santa Rosa Junior College’s cross country, men and women, are off and running to a great start this season.

Both men’s and women’s cross country teams finished in the top five against division two schools Sept. 21 in the Sonoma State Invitational at Howarth Park.

The men’s cross country team finished third with 48 points, only one point behind second place Cal State Monterey Bay and 16 points behind first place UC Santa Cruz.

Jaime Silva finished fourth in 26:28.29 seconds; an average of 5:19 seconds a mile while Cristian Nazarek finished fifth in 26:36.40 seconds; an average of 5:21 seconds a mile and Matt Taylor finished 12th in 27:29.79 seconds, an average of 5:31 seconds a mile.

The women’s team finished fifth with 119 points. Taylor Falk finished 19th in 24:42.60 seconds, an average of 6:37 seconds a mile.

“The players that didn’t have a good summer are getting race ready” said Coach David Wellman.

The next meet is against American River in the Beaver Invitational in Folsom Saturday Oct. 5 at 10 a.m.