UCLA Readies for NCAA Championships
November 19, 2015 | Cross Country
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA men's cross country team and freshman Carolina Johnson will head to Louisville, Ky., to compete in the NCAA Championships. The meet will be held on Saturday, Nov. 21 at the E.P Tom Sawyer State Park. The women's 6k will start things off at 9 a.m. PT and will be followed by the men's 10k at 10 a.m. PT.
"This is where it all happens," UCLA cross country coach Forest Braden said. "This is the meet every runner wants to be at. All the hard work from June until November comes down to this race. I am very proud of the team that has made it this far. It is never easy but the guys have rallied throughout the year and are now one race away from accomplishing our season goals."ย
The berth for the men's squad is the third in the last four seasons and the trip to Louisville will be the second for seniors Lane Werley and Sergey Sushchikh. Werley led the Bruins to a 13th place finish by earning All-American honors with a 25th place showing.
"On the men's side, we have a group of fourth and fifth year seniors who have the experience, toughness and desire to make something happen on Saturday," Braden said. "We want to go after as high of a team finish as possible and as many All-Americans as possible. We are capable of great things as a team and individually and I am excited to watch our men and Carolina go race."
Both Sushchikh and Werley enter the meet on the heels of a USTFCCCA All-Region performance at the NCAA West Region Championships a week ago in Seattle where the Bruins finished seventh overall. Sushchikh paced the Bruins with a ninth place finish while Werley crossed the line in 16th.
Freshman Carolina Johnson may only have three collegiate races under her belt but the Sweden native has been superb. Johnson earned all-region accolades after placing 11th at the regional meet last week, two weeks after earning All-Pac-12 honors with a ninth place showing.
