The men’s and women’s cross-country teams will travel to Indiana this weekend for their biggest meet of the year. The 2008 Pre-NCAA Invitational will be held on Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind., the same location for the NCAA Championships in November.
“We feel more confident now,” senior Laef Barnes said. “We upset a couple teams in Eugene, and we realize we’re a much better team. This is an opportunity to beat more teams.”
There will not be a shortage of teams to beat because the competition field will boast more than 90 schools. The field is so big it has to be split up, two races for the men and two for the women. Each race will have 250 to 300 athletes on the line when it starts.
The No. 23 men’s team hopes to ride the momentum from its last event in Oregon that thrust it into the top 30 teams in the nation. At the Bill Dellinger Invitational two weeks ago, the Bruins came in fourth.
Barnes and six other runners hope to put together another strong showing to push the team further into the national spotlight.
“The men are a national-caliber team,” coach Eric Peterson said. “It’s time for our team to come up with a big performance on a big stage. We’ve set lofty goals for this team.”
UCLA will run in the 12:10 p.m. local time 8000-meter “blue race” that will have 12 ranked teams, including No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 6 Alabama, No. 9 Michigan and No. 13 Florida State.
“We have no idea where we stand nationally,” Barnes said. “Rankings don’t say much. The best teams in the nation are stacked up against each other. We will get an idea of elite teams, who’s up and coming, and who we can beat down the road.”
The women’s team will compete in the 6-kilometer “white race” at 11:35 a.m. In that race, the Bruins will run against No. 3 Florida State, No. 5 Princeton, No. 8 Arizona State and No. 11 Michigan, among others.
“On the women’s side, we are going with a very young team, and our focus is on giving them some national exposure,” Peterson said. “Our team last year wasn’t ready for it. I feel much better about taking this team back to this meet.”
The seven women will consist of only one senior, four freshmen and two sophomores. This will be a chance for the inexperienced group to break back into the national cross-country scene.
Pre-Nationals will give the team a look at the course they hope to return to for the NCAA Championships.
“Being a senior, I’ve raced on the course before,” Lauren Jirges said. “We have a young team, so it will be valuable to get on the course.”
Saturday will be the first time the women have returned to competition after a three-week layoff. The last event they participated in was a fifth-place finish at the Stanford Invitational Sept. 27.
The time off has allowed the Bruins a great deal of time to train and improve, so the Bruins are ready to go this weekend.
“I think (the break) helped the team out,” Jirges said. “We increased our mileage, and not racing has enabled us to do that.”
Aside from the “blue” and “white” race for each gender, there is an open race for teams that take more than the allotted seven athletes.
Junior Jake Matthews, redshirt sophomore Kevin Sullivan and sophomore Jun Reichl will run in the open race to gain a feel for the course and weather conditions.