UC Irvine cross country heads to Sacramento on Friday, Nov. 13, with a direct path to the NCAA Championships hanging in the balance.
The Anteaters will compete at the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex during the NCAA West Regional. For both the women’s and men’s squads, the stakes involve more than just a regional title; the top two teams in each race earn automatic advancement to the national stage.
The women’s team enters the meet following a fourth-place finish at the Big West Championships. That performance demonstrated a high level of cohesion, as their five scoring runners all finished within 40.4 seconds of one another.
Kaia Schmidt and Emma Hadley led that charge in Riverside, finishing seventh and eighth. Schmidt recorded a time of 20:02.8, while Hadley followed just five seconds later at 20:07.8. Both seniors have earned Big West Athlete of the Week honors this fall.
The women’s pursuit of the top two
While the lead duo of Schmidt and Hadley provides the speed, a tightly packed supporting group gives UC Irvine momentum entering Friday’s regional competition. At the conference meet, Cynthia Herrera, Liana Lee, and Anna Soares maintained the team’s momentum. Herrera finished 22nd in 20:36.9, closely followed by Lee in 23rd at 20:37.5, and Soares in 27th at 20:43.2.
At the UCR Invitational on Sept. 19, the team captured the title with 65 points, finishing 87 points ahead of runner-up Cal State Fullerton in a field of 30 teams, UCI Athletics reported.
| Event/Metric | Women’s 6K Details | Men’s 10K Details |
|---|---|---|
| Start Time | 9 a.m. PT | 10 a.m. PT |
| Location | Sacramento, Calif. | Sacramento, Calif. |
| Course | Arcade Creek | Arcade Creek |
Men face the 10K distance
The men’s team transitions to the longer 10K distance on Friday, seeking to build on a momentum-shifting performance at the Big West Championships. In that race, the Anteaters climbed from sixth to fifth place during the final 500 meters, ultimately finishing five points ahead of Cal State Fullerton to secure 157 points.
The program improved its conference standing by three places compared to 2025. Juan Chantaca spearheaded the effort with an eighth-place finish in 23:41.9, an All-Big West performance that sits just 3.5 seconds off his 2025 UCR Invitational record of 23:38.4.
Senior Jimmy Markowicz has recently stepped into a leading role, having paced the team at the Bill Dellinger Invitational. He will guide a group that includes four freshmen: Nathan Wilber, Owen Souther, Aiden Zavala, and Braulio Castillo.
Beyond the two automatic qualifying team spots, the NCAA allows for 14 at-large teams per gender. Individual athletes also have a lifeline: the first four finishers in the region who are not on a qualifying team can earn a berth if they finish among the top 25 overall.
If the Anteaters secure their spots in Sacramento, they will head to the NCAA Championships on Saturday, Nov. 21, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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