It was another big weekend for UCLA cross country runner Austin Ramos.
The senior from Sacramento finished fourth overall and was awarded All-Conference honors this weekend in Corvallis, Ore., at the Pac-10 Cross Country Championships, leading the Bruins to a fourth-place finish.
Ramos ran a career-best 23:10.8 for the 8-kilometer course. He was followed by Drew Shackleton at 23:30.7 and Laef Barnes with 23:33.7, along with senior Kyle Shackleton at 23:41.1.
Those three Bruins finished close together in 18th, 19th and 22nd place.
It was also a career day for sophomore Marco Anzures, who finished at the Bruins’ fifth position with a time of 23:58.5. It was the first time Anzures finished in a scoring position during a championship-level meet, which speaks not only for a potentially promising future for the program but also the level of depth and talent on this year’s Bruin squad.
It was the best finish for the Bruins since 1997 and the best finish under eighth-year coach Eric Peterson.
“We’ve had a very good season,” Peterson said. “Austin has been a tremendous leader for our team ever since he entered our program, and it’s really exciting to see him as we now advance into the postseason, and to see him prepare for another All-American performance, which we all believe he is capable of.”
Oregon, the number one team in the nation, finished first in the team competition, followed by nationally ranked Stanford and California.
While UCLA’s fourth-place finish is impressive, Peterson admitted that there were no surprises at the meet, as the Bruins finished behind the teams ranked nationally ahead of them and were able to finish ahead of the teams in the conference ranked lower than they were.
The Pac-10 is undoubtedly the strongest conference in the nation, with six teams ranked in the top 25 for the Western Region.
“As a coach, I’m proud of the fact that we are improving and that we are getting better, and that now we are placing higher than we ever have in the last decade,” Peterson said. “We’ve got a really exciting, talented, tough, competitive group of athletes that want more than we were able to accomplish today.”
The Bruins will have an extra week to prepare for the postseason, which begins with the NCAA Western Regionals on Nov. 10.
This extra week of training should aid the Bruins as they attempt to peak at the regional, which will be held in two weeks in Eugene, Ore., on the same course the Bruins raced at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Sept.29. In that race, the Bruins finished in an impressive fifth place, ahead of many nationally ranked teams.
“Our goal all along has been to finish as a top-10 team in the nation, and our ultimate goal would be to finish in the top five, but we still have some work to do if we want to accomplish that,” Peterson said.
Claire Rethmeier was the leading runner for the women’s team, finishing at 21:10.6, which was good enough for a 33rd-place finish.
Peterson stressed the importance of improving in the next couple of weeks so that the women’s team can finish the season on a positive note.