This post was updated Oct. 13 at 10:05 p.m.

Making a season debut less than a month before the Big Ten championships is a risk.

But graduate student Michael Mireles and senior Mia Kane don’t seem too concerned.

UCLA cross country competed against more than 20 teams at the Bill Dellinger Invite on Friday in Eugene, Oregon. Mireles and Kane returned to competition to make their season debuts, vaulting the Bruins to some of their best team finishes all year.

“Our women ran pretty well today, so good job from them today. The men, we’re still a little beat up at the moment, but overall, they were okay,” said assistant coach Andrew Ferris. “But Michael was great today.”

The men’s 8k race was highlighted by Mireles’ sixth-place finish, the highest-placing Bruin of the day. The Thousand Oaks, California, local recorded a personal best of 23:04.80 in his first cross country race since 2022.

Graduate student Jack Rosencrans ran in his second race as a Division I athlete, improving upon his 95th-place finish at the Gans Creek Classic to place 54th. Senior Patrick Curulla rounded out the Bruins’ top-100 finishes, placing 74th with a 24:30.80 tally.

“He (Mireles) put himself in it. He ran with five that are going to be top-25 in the country, so he’s put himself on a different level,” Ferris said. “His performance today shows that he can be an All-American.”

BYU achieved perfection, taking the top five placements to earn the lowest possible team score with a 15. Casey Clinger took the top spot, edging out Cougar teammate James Corrigan by 1.1 seconds.

On the women’s side, UCLA improved its finish from last year’s invitational to place fifth overall. Kane led the Bruins with her 12th-place finish at 20:23.90 in the women’s 6k race, completing her first cross country race of the season.

With just one race under her belt before the Big Ten championships, Kane said she had a different approach to racing this year.

“This is definitely a little bit more of an untraditional approach to the season, but I think it’ll be good,” Kane said. “I know how to race, and I am confident in myself, my teammates and in the training, and I think that combination can usually yield the result that I’m looking for.”

Olivia Foody trailed just four spots behind Kane to place 16th, one of only three freshmen at the competition to finish in the top 20.

“She (Foody) wants to run at the highest level, and she has certainly shown why she wants to do that,” Ferris said. “I don’t think there is anything stopping her from doing that in the future.”

No. 6 Utah and No. 22 Oregon – the two ranked teams at the race – followed suit to place first and second overall, respectively.

With the race’s conclusion, the Bruins are officially headed into the postseason. While the regular season races do not bear any weight on postseason qualification, Friday’s performance is the tone-setter for the rest of the year.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction,” Kane said. “It’s good to go out and run these races against these fast teams. I think that we’re definitely believing in ourselves more.”

UCLA will return to action for its inaugural Big Ten championships Nov. 1.