Sometimes, there is only one chance to prove a point.

And Friday’s affair presents the Bruins with an opportunity to do just that.

Having wrapped up the regular season less than two weeks ago, UCLA cross country will travel to Colfax, Washington, with the chance to qualify for nationals at the NCAA West Regional. The meet marks the first of postseason action, providing a chance for teams to compete and rank at the national level.

“The West region is a stacked region,” said assistant coach Andrew Ferris. “We can certainly prove ourselves against some of the best teams in the country.”

Forty-one schools will converge in the northwest as the Bruins will tackle pacing themselves on the cold and wet terrain of the Colfax Golf Course against a plethora of nationally ranked competitors.

The men, who placed 12th at the Big Ten championships earlier this month, will line up against a stacked field that includes five nationally ranked programs: No. 7 Stanford, No. 12 Washington, No. 15 Oregon, No. 16 Cal Baptist and No. 25 Portland. Oregon’s and Washington’s women’s teams are also ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in the nation, respectively – rankings that stood up at the conference championships earlier this month.

With the competition presenting high stakes against the top guns in the region, freshman Olivia Foody said the experience at the Big Ten tournament provided insight that the team will carry into the postseason.

“I know our team has a lot more to give,” Foody said. “We now know things that we didn’t before going into this that we are going to work on and strategies that we’re going to pinpoint for regionals.”

This season was full of new beginnings for head coach Joanna Hayes and Ferris’ squad, from joining a new conference to debuting its top runners less than a month before the Big Ten tournament. Despite the changes, the season also introduced a podium finish.

After incurring a season-ending injury in the previous season, graduate student Michael Mireles came back to the terrain earlier this year. Ferris said Mireles spent the last year “locked in,” and it paid off at the Big Ten tournament.

Etching a mark in UCLA history after securing the program’s first-ever Big Ten podium finish, Mireles said the prospect of being a part of NCAA conversation added an element to his competitive drive headed into the postseason.

“Being in that second spot for that long in the race proves that I’m strong, and I can hold my ground,” Mireles said. “It’s going to be good momentum going into the regional race.”

Friday’s meet presents an opportunity to test that momentum.

As the coming meet day hangs over the team, Ferris added that the postseason can be reminiscent of a puzzle, and the team is breaking down the race piece by piece as they navigate the obstacles that the competition may produce.

“I think we’ll be pretty ready,” Ferris said. “The beauty of having 30 teams on the line is that everybody’s going to face the same conditions at the same time.”

The starting gun in Colfax will fire 11 a.m. Friday.