With eyes on the postseason, cross country heads to first season invitational
Senior Mia Kane leads a pack of Bruins during a race. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)
By Chloe Agas
Sept. 26, 2024 12:26 p.m.
First-meet jitters are no longer an excuse.
But the Bruins’ upcoming road trip presents a new set of lingering challenges.
UCLA cross country will compete in its second seasonal meet, the Gans Creek Classic, in Columbia, Missouri, on Friday. The meet – the Bruins’ first invitational of the year – provides a preview of the 2025 national championship course and potential rivals.
Forty-one teams from around the country will converge in the Midwest as the Bruins tackle a shift in both time zone and weather conditions. Despite this, assistant coach Andrew Ferris said the course will prepare the team for the remainder of the season.
“I want us to gain more experience, get a really good sense of how that course runs,” Ferris said. “(I want us) to gauge the effort and really fine-tune our race executions so that by the time we get to the Big Ten and regionals, we know exactly what we’re doing when we stand on the start line.”
Ferris added that UCLA’s focus this season is taking steps toward competitive success in the future, as the priority is peaking in the postseason.
This year’s roster hosts a plethora of fresh faces and new talent in both the men’s and women’s teams, featuring freshman Everett Capelle and sophomore Ailish Hawkins, respectively. Included in the young yet experienced women’s team is junior Kaho Cichon, who competed in five meets for the Bruins last season.
“We really want to place (as) top 10 individuals,” Chichon said. “For the returners, all of us really do want to go for a seasonal best. … It can be tough, but we’re willing to fight through that and do the best we can.”
Cichon added that the upcoming race presents an opportunity to see how the team gels.
“Out of this race, we really want to see how we’re going to be able to run together as a team,” Cichon said. “From there, learning how to better improve for future races, I think our main goal would be seeing where we’re at as a team and being able to work together as a collective group.”
The starting gun will go off at the Gans Creek Classic at 6 a.m. Friday.
