After a long season of close calls and narrow margins, the
men’s team finally did everything right and had the breakout
race that they had been waiting for all season long.
But it still wasn’t good enough to earn a bid to the NCAA
Championships.
Despite a fourth-place finish at the NCAA West Regional
Championships in Fresno on Saturday, in which the Bruins beat three
higher-ranked opponents and fell only to three teams ranked in the
top-10 nationally, the Bruins were passed over for an at-large bid
to the NCAA Championship race in Terre Haute, Indiana.
“I feel for the guys,” coach Eric Peterson said.
“We ran so well Saturday. I’m happy we were able to put
it together at the most important time of the season … but, what
matters is how many teams you’ve beaten that have qualified
for the NCAA meet.”
The fact that the Bruins did not perform better at the
pre-national meet and the Notre Dame Invitational in October is
what ultimately cost the team a chance to run in the championship
meet, according to Peterson.
Despite quality wins over Ohio State and Michigan State earlier
in the year, both of whom did receive at-large bids, the precarious
position the Bruins were in Saturday proved too much too
overcome.
Going into the 10,000-meter race, No. 2 Stanford, No. 6 Cal Poly
San Luis Obispo and No. 8 Arizona State were essentially a lock for
the NCAA Championships.
Those schools finished in the top three positions
respectively.
Heading into the race, it was believed that in order for the
Bruins to have a legitimate shot for an at-large bid, they had to
beat out the University of Portland, Oregon and Washington.
Not only did they accomplish this goal, but they did so in a
dominating fashion, defeating fifth-place Portland by 26 points and
Oregon by 82 points. Still, it was not enough to convince the NCAA
cross-country panel that the team was deserving enough of a trip to
Indiana.
Saturday’s meet marked an abrupt end to the collegiate
cross-country careers of seniors Erik Emilsson and Ben Aragon.
However, fellow senior Jon Rankin will advance to the NCAA
Championships since he qualified for the meet as an individual.
Even though Rankin will still be making the trip to Indiana, he
believes that he should be going with the whole team.
“I would’ve liked to have my teammates there,”
Rankin said. “I mean, they earned it this year. That’s
what’s hard about it, is that we really earned it. We were
really stoked. We really thought we would get the bid.”
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY:
Although a fourth-place finish wasn’t good enough for the
men at the Regional Championships, it wasn’t even necessary
for the women’s team to make the NCAA Championships.
Despite a disheartening sixth-place finish Saturday at the West
Regional Championships, the unranked Bruins were awarded an
at-large bid to next week’s championship meet.
“Looking at the results we thought there was no way we
would get a bid,” junior Jenna Timinksy said. “We
thought the first three teams would go and possibly one or two
more. We didn’t think we necessarily earned our spot after
that race.”
The Bruins, who were ranked as high as No. 8 earlier this
season, knew they would have their hands full in a loaded Western
Region with UC Santa Barbara, Washington and Idaho behind No. 1
Stanford and No. 7 Arizona State.
But despite season-best times by each of their top five runners,
it simply was not enough to thwart any of their aforementioned
opponents.
Nevertheless, the team is excited to get another chance to race
against the nation’s best teams, something coach Eric
Peterson believes that his team has earned.
“I wasn’t thinking “˜Wow, that was a close
call, we barely made it in,'” Peterson said. “I
knew we should make it, but I felt that we were really cutting it
close.”