An unexpected fourth competitor appeared at the Bruins’ season-opener – elevation.

UCLA cross country kicked off its season with a tri-meet against UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara at Big Bear Lake, California, on Friday. Nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, the Bruins finished second in the team competition for the women’s 3.2-mile race with 35 points. Individually, four women and two men placed in the top 10 of the competition.

“Running at 7,000 feet changes the game plan a bit,” said senior Carly Corsinita. “Due to the altitude, we were a lot more conservative the first lap of the race. … We all tried to stay together the first little bit to make sure that no one gave too much early on.”

The Bruins stuck to that game plan throughout the 3.2-mile race, taking places fourth through sixth. Junior Annika Salz led the Bruins in fourth with a time of 22 minutes, 15.28 seconds while Corsinita trailed less than half a second behind to take fifth. Over 12 seconds later, sophomore Ailish Hawkins crossed the finish line in sixth place. Freshman Quinci Lott was the last Bruin to reach a top-10 performance, placing ninth with a 22:47.09 time.

“Our women overall did a great job,” said assistant coach Andrew Ferris. “They certainly put themselves in the right spots and did a great job executing their race plan.”

On the men’s side, freshman Everett Capelle led all Bruins in his first collegiate race. The San Juan Capistrano, California, local recorded an 18:27.08 time, nearly three-tenths of a second faster than senior Patrick Curulla’s fifth-place effort.

Similar to Corsinita, Curulla took it easy in the first stretch of the race.

“Our game plan for this race was to keep it controlled in the first half, and then in the second half of the race, we were going to let loose a little bit and really, really push the pace and see what we could do,” Curulla said. “We did that pretty well, and I think that set a good tone for the rest of the season.”

Sophomore Aaron Cantu made his Bruin debut after missing the entirety of the 2023 season, contributing a 19:23.72 effort for a 19th-place finish.

The men only put up four runners – Capelle, Curulla, Cantu and sophomore Mark Cortes. Had they entered one more competitor into the race, the Bruins could have contested for a team score.

Notable absences from the competition were graduate student Michael Mireles and senior Mia Kane – both part of the 2024 Big Ten Cross Country Preseason Player Watch List. However, the vacancies gave way to newcomers gaining competitive exposure.

With this being the first meet of the season, Ferris said the Bruins must strike a balance. Finding early success is important to building confidence and momentum, but the perfect time to peak is during the postseason.

The Bruins have more than three weeks until their next endeavor.

“Going forward, we just got to continue to get the basics right and continue to really hone them and be great at that,” Ferris said. “We don’t need to do anything special, but just executing the basics really, really well day in, day out. That’s what is going to make us great.”