Amid excellent running conditions and the setting of numerous course records, the men’s and women’s cross country teams did their best to keep pace, earning 8th and 25th-place finishes, respectively, at the Pre-National Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Senior Austin Ramos led the way for the 19th-ranked men’s team in the 8-kilometer race, finishing in 15th place with a lifetime-best time of 23:38.1.
“(Austin) did a great job in leading our team,” coach Eric Peterson said. “And he’s done so consistently throughout his career. We really count on Austin to be a strong and consistent performer for us, and he has done that.”
Senior Kyle Shackleton equaled his lifetime best with a time of 24:07.03, and redshirt junior Drew Shackleton managed to break his previous mark with a time of 24:09.03. Junior Laef Barnes and sophomore Jake Matthews were also able to take advantage of the fast conditions and run lifetime records for the 8km course.
Three Bruin runners also competed in the open race: freshman Kent Morikawa finished 12th overall in a time of 24:54.4, sophomore Marco Anzures took 18th, and senior Henry Hagenbuch finished 23rd.
“Running conditions were fairly perfect, and the condition of the course was fast as well,” Peterson said. “The competition was very high and it’s nice to see that we are responding to that, and it’s bringing out the best in our runners.”
The Pre-National Invitational is one of the largest races of the year and is usually a good indication of how teams will fare in the postseason.
Even though the Bruins finished outside of their goal of the top five, Peterson remained optimistic about their chances for a successful postseason run.
He cited the fact that the Bruins gained some impressive victories over high-caliber teams such as Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, Florida State and Louisville. The Bruins only finished one point behind their next competitor, Portland, whom they will be facing in the Western Region of the NCAA Championships.
The next test for the Bruins will be the Pac-10 Championship in Eugene, Ore., where the team will face one of the strongest conferences in the nation.
Besides UCLA, the top contenders for the Pac-10 crown will be Oregon, Stanford, Arizona State and California.
However, the only team in the Pac-10 to finish ahead of the Bruins at the invitational was Cal, who placed second behind Northern Arizona.
“It’s going to be a real battle for one of the best team races that we’ve had in recent memory,” Peterson said. “So we’ve got two weeks to prepare for that and it is certainly where 100 percent of our focus is going to be right now.”
Ramos will again be looked upon to be a team leader for the Bruins and he stressed their focus on training and competing in Eugene.
“We’ll just keep training like we’ve been training,” Ramos said. “We have been running really good workouts but we’ll take some time and go over these results and learn from what we did (in this race).”
The women’s team faced a far more difficult race at the Pre-Nationals, finishing 25th as a team, led by senior Claire Rethmeier, who finished 83rd out of 235 runners, with a time of 21:34. The goal for the Bruins was to see how they measured up against some of the national powers in women’s cross country, and Peterson emphasized that the team will continue to work hard in preparation for the Pac-10 Championship.