Cross country coach Eric Peterson realizes that if the season
ended today, neither of his teams would be punching their tickets
to the national championships, which is why he knows his squads
must step up their performances this weekend.
The Bruins will head east to Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday to
take part in the Pre-NCAA Invitational, an event that attracts
top-tier teams from around the country.
“This is a critical weekend for us,” Peterson said.
If the season had ended after both squads’ poor performances
at the Griak Invitational in Minnesota two weeks ago, they probably
would not be considered to compete for spots in the NCAA meet, he
explained.
Since the Western Region is so top-heavy with Stanford, Arizona
and Cal Poly on the men’s side and Stanford, Arizona State
and Washington on the women’s side, logic would dictate that
the only way either Bruin team will be able to qualify for the NCAA
Championship meet in November is to earn an at-large bid.
The bids are awarded to the next-best teams in the country who
do not finish in the top three in their region.
In order to receive a bid, a team must show that it has been
consistent all season. Last season, the men finished fourth in the
regional meet, beating nationally ranked squads Oregon, Washington
and Portland, but since they had an inconsistent regular season,
the NCAA selection committee opted to leave the Bruins out of the
championships.
“It doesn’t do you any good to have a great race at
the regional meet,” Peterson said, “if prior to that
you haven’t had at least one or more solid or great races in
major national competition like this meet will be.”
On the men’s side, the squad will get a big boost as
standout freshman Laef Barnes returns to the lineup. Earlier this
month, there was speculation as to how long Barnes would be
sidelined with a leg injury. In his only race of the year, Barnes
placed fourth on the team in his first ever 8,000-meter race.
The return of Barnes will be a nice compliment to junior Austin
Ramos and sophomore Mike Haddan, who have been a good one-two punch
for the Bruins, running at the front of the pack in every meet.
For the women, junior Ashley Caldwell will look to build on an
already-impressive season while also leading the way for the Bruins
as they aim to gain momentum going into the last few weeks of the
regular season.
“I’m really excited for this weekend,”
Caldwell said. “There’s no better opportunity to really
test your skills than to run against some of best runners in the
nation.”
Since there are nearly 80 teams competing in both the
men’s and women’s races, each race will be broken into
two seeded races, making both Bruin squads’ chances of
finishing highly more realistic.
“If we’re going to be a top-20 team in the
nation,” Peterson said, “in a race like this, we at a
minimum need to finish in the top 10. Hopefully top
eight.”