The Arizona women’s cross country team finished fourth of 28 teams in the 6-kilometer Stanford Invitational on Saturday in Palo Alto, Calif., while the men’s squad placed eighth of 32 teams in the 8k event.

The women were once again led by their big three of juniors Irine Lagat and Marissa Urban and freshman Maggie Callahan.

After finishing fourth in her first meet of the season two weeks ago, Lagat continued her strong start

to 2007 by placing 13th individually with a time of 21:19. Urban and Callahan placed 16th in 21:30 and 20th in 21:33, respectively.

“”I’m very happy,”” said UA cross country head coach James Li. “”Their performance was quite good, and they have shown significant improvement. I think they can do even better yet.””

“”It is really significant for Irine to be running at this level after last year,”” he added. “”Marissa has been great. She is running at the level that she ran at for Pacific 10

(Conference) Championships, which is not for another four weeks. And for Maggie, as a true freshman, she has a really bright future ahead of her.””

Juniors Shelly Splittberger (50th, 22:21) and Angelina Cabrera (61st, 22:30) rounded out the scoring for Arizona.

“”I would like to see our fourth and fifth runners move up,”” Li said, “”but I think that the team performed very well overall.””

The men were led by freshman Victor Zazueta (20th, 24:48). Junior Lou Maturo (52nd, 25:26) was the second Arizona athlete to finish.

Freshman Reed Blochberger (77th, 25:43), sophomore Brian MacArthur (82nd, 25:46) and freshman Spencer Carter (88th, 25:53) also ran for Arizona.

“”(Zazueta) has shown tremendous improvement and has been great for a freshman,”” Li said. “”I’m really happy and really satisfied.””

Li said he was pleased with the performance of the men Saturday but would like to see his athletes move up the pack and be closer to the leaders.

“”We have shown good improvement,”” Li said. “”We are making progress and moving in the right direction.””