Christina Rice said there’s been a culture change in the women’s distance team.
“There’s a lot more positive attitude,” said the sophomore distance runner. “I think some people were having a hard time last year so it’s nice to see people having a healthy, positive mindset towards running again.”
UCLA track and field lost roughly 2/3 of its women’s distance runners, but its underclassmen logged several probable NCAA regional qualifying marks last weekend. The underclassmen posted two first-place finishes and two runners finished within two seconds of victory at the Bob Larsen Distance Carnival and Jim Bush Legends Invitational.
“You have more than 2/3 of the group that is brand new,” said assistant distance coach Devin Elizondo. “We knew we were going to take our lumps early with a young group, but we knew we had just enough top talent.”
The only members of the 2016 UCLA cross country team remaining on the roster that qualified for nationals are senior Taylor Taite and juniors Claire Markey, Jackie Garner and Cassandra Durgy.
Elizondo more than doubled the number of athletes under his wing once he inherited the coaching duties of the 21 women’s distance runners last summer. Junior Robert Brandt said he’s noticed a change since then.
“(The women’s distance team has) made huge strides from last year,” Brandt said. “They’re kind of figuring it out (with) a new coach. … I think they’ve really honed in on their culture and they’re really starting to see a big momentum shift in their performances and last night was just the start of it.”
Assisting Elizondo with the women’s distance team is coach Austin O’Neil, who served as a volunteer coach last season. O’Neil was alongside Rice when she broke the UCLA freshman record in the 10,000-meter last season and played a role in helping sophomore Erika Adler qualify for the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
“(O’Neil) is definitely someone you can go to for sound advice and guidance,” Rice said. “When (the race) starts to get tough at the end, he always knows what to say to keep you motivated.”
In the 5,000-meter – the first outdoor track event of Adler’s UCLA career – she posted a time of 16:16.22, good for fifth best in UCLA history. Rice won the 10,000m at the Jim Bush Legends Invitational for the second consecutive season with an improved time of 34:25.25. Adler and Rice’s marks are within the top-50 in the country.
Freshman Sophie Scott bagged a first-place finish in the 1,500-meter in the first outdoor track event of her UCLA career as well. Sophomore Paige Carter and freshman Kira Loren crossed the finish line just seconds after in second and third place to complete the Bruins’ underclassmen sweep of the event.
Carter ran roughly 20 seconds faster since than she did at last year’s Jim Bush Legends Invitational. Loren in the 1,500m, Markey in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and freshman Gwyneth George in the 800-meter all logged new personal records.
“It’s really exciting to see girls coming out and running (personal records) and opening outdoors with improvements already in the first race,” Rice said.