Senior Austin Ramos finished in 17th place at the NCAA Cross Country West Regionals this weekend in Eugene, Ore., leading the No. 21 UCLA men’s team to a seventh-place finish.
The Bruins were unable to receive one of the 13 at-large bids reserved for teams that place outside of the top two in their region. But Ramos, along with senior Kyle Shackleton and junior Drew Shackleton, received exemptions to compete in the individual race at the national championship.
Ramos ran a time of 30 minutes, 35.45 seconds, followed closely by Kyle and Drew Shackleton with times of 30:37.80 and 30:41.25, respectively. Junior Laef Barnes and senior Henry Hagenbuch were the other two runners to finish in scoring positions for the Bruins.
The west regionals showcased two of the highest-powered teams in the nation in No. 1 Oregon and No. 8 Stanford.
More teams in the top 30 competed in the west regionals than in any of the other regional meets around the nation.
“It is really clear that there are seven outstanding teams in the west region right now, seven teams that I feel are national caliber teams,” coach Eric Peterson said. “It’s unfortunate that we placed at the tail end of that group, but it certainly wasn’t because of a lack of effort.”
The Bruins remained highly competitive throughout much of the 10-kilometer race but were unable to close out well against such a strong field of competition.
“At the 4-mile mark today, we were in the most competitive position, team-wise, that we’ve been in all season long in any of our races, and that is something we’ve been working very hard at over that last (couple) weeks,” Peterson said.
Unfortunately for UCLA, Ramos and Barnes, normally consistent performers for the Bruins, did not finish as well as expected.
Barnes had been battling a chest cold for the past couple of weeks, and the switch from the 8km races run during most of the regular season to the more grueling 10km course at the regional probably affected his performance.
“It’s tough for our team to absorb when two of our top runners place anywhere from 12 to 20 places behind where we projected them to be, and that added a pretty hefty point total to our final result,” Peterson said.
Even though the Bruins did not qualify for the NCAA Championships as a team, three of the Bruins who were given automatic qualifiers into the individual race also earned All-Regional honors for finishing in the top 25 at the meet in Eugene. Ramos, along with Drew and Kyle Shackleton, garnered the award for finishing in 17th, 18th and 21st place, respectively.
The UCLA women’s cross country team finished its last race of the season as well on Saturday at the regionals.
Senior Claire Rethmeier was the No. 1 runner for the Bruins, finishing with a time of 21:53.75. It was the end of a tough season for the women’s team, as nagging injuries hindered the runners’ abilities to perform at their highest levels.
Peterson has focused on the importance of building for the future, continuing to get better, and improving as a team.