This weekend will mark the end of the regular season for the cross country team, which will compete in Friday’s Titan Invitational at Cal State Fullerton.
After facing an elite field at last Friday’s Wisconsin Invitational, the Bruins will compete with smaller programs like Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara and several non-Division I teams.
The course bends around grass fields on the Fullerton campus before reaching stretches of concrete and asphalt near the university’s athletic complex.
At last year’s Titan Invitational, the UCLA women took first place while the men only competed individually. Then-senior Jordan Senko finished first among collegiate runners at the men’s 8K race and then-redshirt junior Jen Owen finished second in the women’s 5K race.
Both of them are gone now, and coach Forest Braden told UCLA Athletics the meet will be a chance for his younger runners to gain experience. Braden said he thought five Bruins could contend to win the men’s race.
On the women’s side, the race will be an opportunity to rebound against lesser competition than the team faced at the Wisconsin Invitational, where the Bruins finished 34th out of 36 teams in a stacked field.
Braden will not employ his top runners at the Titan Invitational, giving them a break from competition before the Pac-12 championships held Oct. 30, in Colfax, Wash.
At the Pac-12s, the men, who moved up to No. 15 this week after a ninth-place finish at the Wisconsin Invitational, will have to contend with No. 1 Colorado and No. 3 Oregon.
Although teams do need to accrue national qualifying points from regular-season races, coaches and runners focus their goals around the postseason. The team structures its training schedule with the intent of peaking at the conference meet and at the mid-November NCAAs.
The Titan Invitational is the last chance for the Bruins’ less experienced runners to compete and gain experience, meaning the race could be a glimpse at the future of the UCLA program.
Compiled by Matt Cummings, Bruin Sports senior staff.