Cross country readies to face ranked teams at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational
Redshirt senior Millen Trujillo will gear up for his first race of the 2019 season as the Bruins head to Wisconsin to participate in the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. Trujillo placed third for the Bruins individually at the 2018 NCAA West Regional. (Courtesy of Don Liebig/UCLA Athletics)
By Vinny Lavalsiti
Oct. 17, 2019 12:30 a.m.
When the Bruins finished third at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Sept. 28, they were led by redshirt senior Robert Brandt who finished second individually.
But UCLA cross country was without one regular runner in its lineup – redshirt senior Millen Trujillo.
The Bruins will head to the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday.
The No. 20 UCLA men will run alongside six of the top-10 teams in the country including No. 7 Oregon – one of only two schools to finish ahead of the Bruins at the Bill Dellinger Invitational. Brandt said Trujillo’s return may be the key to a higher finish for the Bruins.
“I think (Trujillo is) our secret weapon,” Brandt said. “A lot of the teams saw us at (the Bill Dellinger Invitational) and saw our strengths, but I don’t think anyone in the NCAA knows that we’ve got one more guy to throw in the lineup.”
Trujillo rounded out UCLA’s top-seven runners in three of its five regular-season meets last year and placed third for the Bruins individually at the 2018 NCAA West Regional in Sacramento, California.
With Trujillo back in the fold, Brandt said the Ducks and Cougars are two top-10 teams he believes the Bruins can topple.
“I’m here to help the team in whatever way possible,” Trujillo said. “Ideally, it’s to score points in the top-five to get the lowest points possible to win the race. But on some days it might be pushing a guy who’s having an off day.”
The UCLA women’s unit has also been without two of its top runners this season because of healing injuries – junior Erika Adler and sophomore Monica Hebner, a transfer from Duke. Hebner will be returning to the course Friday after she set a collegiate-best time in the 10,000-meter preliminary races at the NCAA east regional as a Blue Devil last season.
The women dropped out of the USTFCCCA’s top-30 poll after placing ninth behind six ranked teams at the Bill Dellinger Invitational. Hebner said the team will be vying to prove its place among the other top programs in the West Region.
“We’re focusing on trying to get points for (the NCAA championship) and beating some key teams that are ranked in their regions,” Hebner said. “We want to go up there and make a name for ourselves. We’re a little bit of an underdog. We’re in a really deep West Region so (we want to) show the cross country world we deserve to be up there.”
The men’s and women’s teams will both face 20 ranked teams. Similar to the Bill Dellinger Invitational, Brandt said the atmosphere of the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational will resemble that of an NCAA championship meet, but said the cold weather in Wisconsin will add another factor to the race.
“This is basically a dry run for (the NCAA championship),” Brandt said. “It looks like it’s going to be around (50 degrees), but that’s definitely going to be a different story at nationals in (Terre Haute, Indiana). Us California boys are going to have to get used to that.”
The women’s 6,000m race will kick off at 10:20 a.m. and the men’s 8,000m race will start at 11:00 a.m.
