Five runners for the San Diego State cross country team all set personal bests for this year on Saturday, but had a tough time executing the plan laid out by the coaches.

With two new coaches and a young squad, the focus this year for SDSU has been to retrain and rethink long distance running.

Saturday, the Aztecs headed to Stanford University to compete in the annual Stanford Invitational hosted by the fifth-ranked Cardinal. SDSU finished in 20th place out of a total 22 teams on Stanford’s golf course, where the event took place.

“They started the first mile at too quick of a pace, which ended up hurting them the rest of the race,” assistant coach Jason Karp, Ph.D., said.

The plan for the team has always been to build up all season so they hit their peak at the Mountain West Conference meet.

“This was a big event, and in the heat of competition, the plan we had coming into the race was not executed,” Karp said.

The Aztecs brought five runners to the event, and were led by freshman Marianne Hogan, who finished a respectable 85th out of a total 179 runners with an overall time of 23:03. Senior Rachel Williams, freshman Jordan Davis and juniors Michelle Martinez and Sara Beyers rounded out the rest of the SDSU squad.

“This is a great lesson for them, and now we need to continue with the plan for the rest of the year,” Karp said.

The Aztecs were coming off a fourth place finish at the Aztec Invitational on Sept. 19, the team’s first top-five finish of the season.

SDSU’s next event will take place on Oct. 10 at UC San Diego’s Triton Classic Invitational in La Jolla.