For the first time this season, the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at different venues.
And their outcomes were certainly different.
While the women took care of business against a small field at San Luis Obispo, the men competing at the Pre-NCAA Invitational in Indiana did not perform up to their lofty expectations.
Whether it be tired legs, mentality, jet lag, or the cold, there could have been hundreds of explanations why.
But assistant coach Forest Braden could find none.
“We could not have run any worse,” Braden said.
“We just had a rough day, everyone was flat,” he added.
While the combination of seniors Marco Anzures, Alex Crabill, Marlon Patterson and redshirt junior Jake Matthews started quickly out of the gate in the 8k race, things went downhill from there as the Bruins finished 23rd in a field of 35.
“Their first 2k was perfect and even at the 3 and 4k we were doing well,” Braden said. “But then it started to spread, and like a domino effect, as one person does poorly, it affected everyone else.”
While Patterson (55th, 24:37) and Anzures (104th, 25:10) were able to maintain their positions at the head of the pack, Crabill (107th, 25:11) had to make up quite a lot of distance in order to finish just behind Anzures.
There was much less room for mistakes as the Bruins were unable to run together in a sea of 237 runners.
“If we stayed together, the results would have been different,” Crabill said.
“We will go and re-evaluate strategy this week, but everyone still has to perform,” he said.
In the end, the pack couldn’t stay together as the large field scattered the pack and made it ineffective.
At the Cal Poly Invitational, the girls were led again by junior Shannon Murakami who finished first among runners with a time of 18:01.
Though flat courses are always welcome, Murakami was surprisingly welcoming of the hills she had to climb in order to finish.
“I actually worked the hills to my advantage,” Murakami said. “The course was a lot like high school cross country races where it was dirt and hills ““ but I also knew that it was my course (to win).”
Sadee Martinez (6th, 18:43), Kelcie Wiemann (7th,18:46), Katja Goldring (8th, 18:47) and Rosa Magana (13th, 19:05) rounded out the scoring.
In just two weeks the Bruins will head south to Long Beach for the Pac-10 Championships.
The Bruins will need strong performances there and at NCAA West Regional Championships in order to advance to Nationals.
“We knew we’re better than what we showed today,” Braden said.
“We’re capable of running with the elite in the Pac-10s. This is a test to our mentality, and it is up to us to see if we can respond,” Braden said.