Cross country claims first at season opener

It was a day of firsts for the UCLA cross country teams.

In their first races of the season, the men’s and women’s teams both finished in first place, with redshirt junior Kelsey Smith capturing her first career individual win in the process.

Competing in the Mustang Challenge on Saturday, the men’s team defeated Cal State Fullerton, 20-53, while the women’s team beat Loyola Marymount, 20-51.

“I was pleased with the effort. Men’s and women’s teams, no one quit. We had a lot of people fighting out there and giving everything they had and when you do that, you’re going to come away happy with the result … whatever it is,” said long-distance coach Forest Braden. “We just happened to get the wins well, which is obviously nice.”

Smith, who won her 5K race by more than 30 seconds with a 17:01.56 time, said she was excited to earn her first collegiate win, though her mind nearly outraced her legs as she neared the finish line.

“I just thought, ‘I want to win. I want to win for the team.’ Just trying to hang on as hard as I can,” Smith said.

Sophomore Sergey Sushchikh, who placed first in the men’s 8K race with a time of 24:50.11, described the win as a team effort.

“It was really all the team. We rallied up to the front right off the bat and we just stayed together for at least three quarters of the race. We just had a pack up front,” Sushchikh said. “Just having my team with me right there just gave me the confidence to go when this other runner started to push it and I ended up beating him.”

Braden was pleased with Sushchikh’s performance, noting the sophomore’s steady improvement over the summer.

“The last couple of months he’s just been really good. He’s becoming a team leader and he’s a guy that everyone looks up to,” Braden said. “To see him perform so well and run so smooth (was good).”

The Mustang Challenge marked the Bruins’ first meet of the season, after their first scheduled race, the Nevada Chase Race on Aug. 30, was canceled because of the poor air conditions caused by the Yosemite fires. But the Bruins didn’t let the delayed start to their season become a problem.

“I think it was actually better for us because for the Chase Race we don’t take the whole team, we only take a select few of the guys and I think having the majority of the team to start off the season today gave us more confidence and unity,” Sushchikh said.

Finally getting the chance to compete after the delayed start made Saturday’s race all the more enjoyable for the Bruins.

“It’s definitely been a while since we raced, so we were excited to actually put the jersey on, which makes it a little better,” Braden said. “It was just training, training, training, training. We run and we train and we work so hard for the race day, so it was building up to this and it was nice to finally put the jersey on.”

Now that the season finally has begun, Smith said the Bruins are excited to build off their early success.

“I think that we have a really good shot to achieve all of our goals as a team and just really surprise a lot of people, because right now we’re kind of an underdog, so it’s a good place to be,” Smith said. “I’m excited to see where we can go from here.”