San Francisco, Calif. -- The San Jose State men's cross country team kicked off the 2012 season with a ninth place finish out of 17 teams in the USF Invitational on September 1 in San Francisco, Calif.

The Spartan men were led by sophomore Mueen Ghoury who finished the 8K course through Golden Gate Park in 26:32.00.

Matthew Stephens was close behind finishing three seconds behind Ghoury in 35th place out of 143 individuals.

"We did our best to try and compete today," said San Jose State head coach Ron Davis. "There is a lot of room for improvement here and we'll be getting right to work next week."

Freshman Alexander Selevos finished in 85th place (28:38.00) and Nick Sherrell came in 90th (28:53.00). Garrick Chan rounded out the scorers for the Spartans finishing in 101st place (29:26.00).

#9-ranked Stanford took the first four individual places on their way to the team victory with a near perfect score of 19. California finished in second place with 36, followed by San Francisco with 114.

San Jose State men's cross country is back in action with two races starting September 14 at the San Francisco State Invitational and again September 15th at the Aztec Invitational hosted by San Diego State.

TEAM RESULTS:
1. Stanford 19
2. California 36
3. San Francisco 114
4. West Florida 174
4. CSU Stanislaus
6. Santa Clara 174
7. UC Santa Cruz 206
8. CSU East Bay 285
9. San Jose State 287
10. CSu Monterey Bay 295
11. Saint Mary's College 302
12. UC Merced 312
13. Holy Names 327
14. Academy of Arts 339
15. Delta College 399
16. Dominican 419
17. Notre Dame De Namur

SJSU RESULTS:
34. Mueen Ghoury 26:32.00
35. Matthew Stephens 26:35.00
85. Alexander Selevos 28:38.00
90. Nicholas Sherrell 28:53.00
101. Garrick Chan 29:26.00
105. Brandon Jauregui 29:42.00
106. Imran Zaman 29:49

TOP-FIVE INDIVIDUALS
Tyler Stutzman - Stanford - 24:45.00
Michael Atchoo - Stanford - 24:45.30
Miles Unterreiner - Stanford - 24:45.80
Benjamin Johnson - Stanford - 24:46.00
Agustin Alva - California - 24:52.00