Men’s cross country finishes 14th at NCAA championship

At first, he said they were “content.” But coach Forest Braden knew that wasn’t the right word to describe his runners’ feelings after the national meet. The cross country coach corrected himself, explaining that the men’s team was “accepting” of its 14th-place finish at Saturday’s NCAA championship. “They realize the magnitude of that race and they also realize the accomplishment that placing in the top 15 is,” Braden said. “There’s not a lot of UCLA cross country teams that have done that.” Led by an All-American performance from senior Lane Werley, the Bruins ended up one spot behind where they placed last year, registering their second straight top-15 finish and their third in four years. Heading into Saturday’s meet in Louisville, Kentucky, Braden said UCLA could attain a top-10 ranking if the team performed at the peak of its abilities. About halfway through the 10K race, the Bruins looked poised to do just that, sitting in 10th place after 5,200 meters. But they couldn’t hang on. Senior Nick Hartle and junior Jonah Diaz were both in the top 75 at the 5,200-meter mark but fell throughout the latter half of the race to 127th and 122nd respectively. “Halfway through, both really looked like they might be the ones to step up and bring this team to places it’s never been before,” Braden said. “It wasn’t like they just gave up. They were struggling out there, they were hurting and trying to make it happen.” The national meet can be cruel, Braden said. “Ninety percent of people that race there come away feeling unsatisfied, or they want to do better, they could have done better,” Braden said. “That’s kind of the nature of our sport and I think it’s magnified at a race like that where the competition is so fierce.” That hyper-competitive environment is part of what makes it difficult to pull off a conservative approach early in the race. “Basically, the whole field is not messing around,” Werley said. “The first mile, I think, was like 4:33 or something like that. … You just got to keep your head right and basically just go with guys. You can’t be thinking about trying to stay back as much as you can because its just going to be moving.” Senior Sergey Sushchikh, who finished just 14 spots off an All-American pace at last year’s championships, was not at his best Saturday, placing 119th as the Bruins’ second runner to finish. Next followed Diaz and Hartle, then sophomore Myles Smith in 148th. Junior Ferdinand Edman, racing for the first time since sustaining a stress fracture in his tibia during the spring, did not score for the team, taking 181st. Nor did junior Sean Davis, who came in at 200th. It wasn’t the finale Braden and the Bruins had dreamed of. As he does every year, the coach will reexamine what worked and what didn’t throughout the season of training. He’s not content with 14th place but he accepts it. “(I’m) pretty happy with where the program’s at and where it’s going,” Braden said. “We definitely want to keep progressing and keep trying to improve every year but first of all, it takes consistency at a certain level and we’re starting to get that consistency down. Then it’s just a matter of time before we pop the big one.” Competing in the women’s race as an individual competitor, Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Carolina Johnson experienced a similar fate as the men’s team. An explosive start positioned her 12th in the field of 254 after 2K and in the top-40 after 4K, but Johnson struggled throughout the end of the race, slipping to 75th by the time she crossed the finish line. Having enjoyed so much success in her first year – the freshman finished 9th in the conference and 11th in the region – Johnson said it was hard to believe her placement when she crossed the finish line. “To have 74 girls that are better than me, that doesn’t feel good when I want to be the best,” Johnson said. But she said she still recognized the impressiveness of finishing in the top third of the talented field. And the number doesn’t tell the whole story – she was just 13 seconds off the top-40 finish she needed to fulfill her All-American goal. “In a situation like that, you’ve got to be able to finish, you have to be able to close. There’s so many people running around you, so many people passing you,” Braden said. “A lot of times it can just mentally be exhausting. And if you’re mentally exhausted, you’re going to be physically exhausted.” Johnson wasn’t sure exactly what she would do differently next time – she liked that she ran with the leaders early on because it helped not to get caught in the pack. But at this point in her career, she still has a tendency to fade late in races, Braden said. Luckily, she has three more years. “It’s just being patient with her and trying to not put as much pressure on one race,” Braden said. “When you’re this young, when you have this many races ahead of you, sometimes it can mentally be exhausting to care so much about every single race. …So it’s not putting as much emphasis on every single race.” “Even nationals.” With contributing reports from Melissa Zhang, Bruin Sports contributor.