It wasn’t quite as good as last year.
But the men’s cross country team’s performance at Friday’s Wisconsin adidas Invitational was still impressive.
A year after placing seventh, UCLA finished ninth in an imposing field that included 17 of the top-30 teams in the nation.
As usual, the No. 20 Bruins were led by senior runner Lane Werley. He completed in the 8K Thomas Zimmer Cross Country Course in just 23:49.9, putting him at 14th overall out of 244 runners in the men’s race.
UCLA registered four other top-100 finishers: senior Sergey Suchchickh in 68th, junior Jonah Diaz in 78th, sophomore Myles Smith in 86th and junior Austin O’Neil in 88th.
The men may see a move up in the national rankings after outpacing five higher-ranked teams: No. 4 Stanford, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 15 Michigan State, No. 16 Indiana and No. 19 Mississippi.
But not all those team’s top runners competed. The Cardinal, for example, were without senior Joe Rosa, who finished 33rd at last year’s national championships.
UCLA was also bested by two lower-ranked teams: No. 24 Furman and unranked Tulsa.
In the women’s race, unranked UCLA continued to struggle this season, finishing 34th out of 36 teams at the invitational.
UCLA did have a noticeable bright spot. Freshman Carolina Johnson, making her collegiate debut, finished 26th out of 246 runners by conquering the 6K race in 20:15.4. With 20 of the top-25 teams attending the meet, Johnson ran faster than all but three other freshmen.
The Bruins’ second finisher, sophomore Emily Scharmann, placed 169th, followed by junior Aliya Shirif at 189th, sophomore Roni Yamane at 190th and freshman Julia Rizk at 225th.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will run in this Friday’s Titan Invitational at Cal State Fullerton.
Compiled by Matt Cummings, Bruin Sports senior staff.