In a sea of legs and terrain, a wave of blue and gold emerges.

UCLA cross country’s five-meet regular season came to a close Oct. 18, and despite the program’s inexperience – with just 10 combined meet appearances across all men’s runners before the season – the Bruins achieved multiple top-five finishes.

“We’ve got six or seven guys that can truly run together in a race and be pretty close, and not many teams have that,” said assistant coach Andrew Ferris. “They draw confidence on seeing UCLA jerseys around them.”

It was a nationwide affair for the Bruins, with meets in California, Oregon and Missouri.

The season began in Big Bear, California, where the Bruins held preseason camp and ran their first regular-season meet against UC Riverside. Big Bear is notable for its high elevation – reaching as high as 9,000 feet – which enabled the Bruins to altitude train.

Redshirt sophomore Kai Mitchell-Reiss said the high-altitude trip helped the Bruins build confidence heading into their subsequent races.

“We were in Big Bear for a month, training up at altitude,” Mitchell-Reiss said. “Then we (thought) ‘We can win Gans Creek.’”

After their time in Big Bear, the Bruins participated in the Gans Creek Classic, an annual multi-team meet in Columbia, Missouri.

Mitchell-Reiss said Gans Creek served as the hallmark performance of the Bruins’ season, and it came with added motivation.

“They put us in the B race,” Mitchell-Reiss said. “We’re a team that should be in the A race, and it felt a little disrespectful to us. … We said, if we want to act like we should be in the A race, then we have to win that. So we called our shot, then we went out there and did it.”

The men’s team was placed in the Black division instead of the Gold division – the meet’s premier division – and responded by claiming first place. Mitchell-Reiss led the way for the men, running a 23:53.5 en route to a top-10 overall finish in the men’s 8k race.

At Gans Creek, the women placed 28th in the Gold division and were led by Olivia Foody. The sophomore finished 99th overall in the women’s 6k race, running a 20:50.5.

Another highlight for UCLA was the Bill Dellinger Invitational – an annual 11-team tournament in Eugene, Oregon. This year, both the men’s and women’s teams achieved top-five finishes.

Mitchell-Reiss led the way for the men’s team, setting a personal record for the 8k and finishing 17th overall. Behind him was redshirt freshman Andreas Dybdahl, who finished 22nd overall at the invitational. His top-25 performance in Oregon earned him Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.

Senior Annika Salz led the women’s team, finishing 12th overall and setting a personal record for the 6k race with a 20:39.66 time.

“Annika Salz, on the women’s side, has made some huge improvements,” Ferris said. “Physically, she’s just become a much better athlete. But mentally, her self-belief and confidence have certainly risen with her fitness level as well.”

The trio of Salz, Foody and junior Ailish Hawkins led the Bruins in both the Gans Creek and Dellinger competitions.

Ferris believes the team has made dramatic improvements this season in terms of overall fitness.

“We’re just fitter than what we were last year, and that shows at practice every day,” Ferris said. “This group, both men and women, is doing stuff that the teams last year and the year before could never do.”

Achieving that level of fitness has required maintaining a grueling workload. Ferris said the women’s team runs 60 miles a week, while the men’s team runs 80 to 90 miles a week.

Mitchell-Reiss says the team’s cohesiveness has helped them push through arduous days.

“What we’re doing is really hard,” Mitchell-Reiss said. “You’re putting yourself in a vulnerable position and working really hard for a collective group. And so having those guys who you really do love … just makes everything that we’re doing out there so much easier, even though it is still hard.”

UCLA will race again in the Big Ten championship on Oct. 31 in East Lansing, Michigan. They will face a field of 17 other teams.

As the season’s finish line approaches, Mitchell-Reiss said the Bruins are remembering why they approached their careers’ starting lines.

“At the end of the day, this is something we all do for fun,” Mitchell-Reiss said. “There are no scholarships. There are no awards or anything to do with it. You’re just doing it.”