SACRAMENTO, Calif. — UC San Diego will be one of 40 schools in Sacramento on Friday for the NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championships.
 
Sacramento State will host this year's event at the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course. The results play a crucial part in determining the qualifiers for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, which will be on Nov. 22 in Columbia, Missouri.
 
The top two teams in each regional earn spots in the national championship. An additional 14 teams will receive at-large bids. Individuals can qualify if they finish in the top 25 at regionals and are one of the first four runners at that meet that are not on a qualifying team.
 
The 40 schools in the West Region include every Division I cross country program in California, Hawai'i, Oregon and Washington. Certain schools from Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Utah are also in the region.
 
RACE DETAILS
Meet 7 – NCAA West Regional Championships
Friday, Nov. 14 | Sacramento, Calif.
Women's 6k – 9:00 a.m. | Men's 10k – 10:00 a.m.
Forecast: 57 degrees and partly cloudy; wind up to 5 mph; 0% chance of rain; 88% humidity

Spectators can park at the American River College Football Stadium off College Oak Drive. There will be a shuttle from that location to the course.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The 2025 Big West Cross Country Championships saw Sylvana Northrop win the program's first individual conference championship since 2005. The redshirt senior was joined by Dasha LeFaivre and Emma Dunmire in earning All-Big West honors. As teams, the Triton women were third and the men were sixth.
 
THIS TIME LAST YEAR
The Tritons are in their second season of Division I postseason eligibility. At last year's West Regional, the Triton women were 16th and the men were 18th. Northrop was the team's best individual finisher, placing 29th.
 
WEST REGION RANKINGS
The Triton women enter Friday's meet ranked No. 14 in the West Regional Coaches' Rankings. At the start of the season, both the Triton men and the Triton women were ranked in the preseason edition of the regional rankings for the first time in Division I. The men checked into that coaches' poll at No. 13, while the women were ranked No. 14.
 
THE TRITONS
The women's team features 20 scholar-athletes, 16 returners and four newcomers. Joining the squad are four incoming freshmen: Saidbh Byrne, Shea Elmore, Kylie Hoornaert and Sabrina Zanetto.
 
The men's team features 15 scholar-athletes, nine returners and six newcomers. Joining the squad are six incoming freshmen: Oliver Clippinger-Zimmermann, Evan Gardner, Nathaniel Griffin-Yeh, Ian Hansen, Navin Kadel and Bradford Stegge.
 
California is home for 30 of the 35 runners. Only one is a transfer, the rest joined the Tritons out of high school. There are nine seniors, nine juniors, six sophomores and 11 freshmen.
 
MEET THE COACHES
Head coach Nate Garcia '00 is back for his 19th season at the helm of Triton cross country and 24th as a member of the coaching staff. He was a four-year letter-winner in both cross country and track at UC San Diego from 1996 to 2000. Garcia is assisted by Meriah Earle, who is in her fourth season with the Tritons. Earle ran both track and cross country at San Diego State, graduating in 2001.
 
WHY THE TRITONS?
The Triton is described as the offspring of Poseidon and Amphitrite, a demigod of the sea with a lower part of the body like that of a fish. It is known as a mighty and fierce sea warrior. Given UC San Diego's close proximity to the Pacific Ocean and its connections with the world-famous Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Triton became our mascot in 1964.

TRITON CROSS COUNTRY TALK
As part of UC San Diego's transition to Division I, the Athletics Department launched a weekly podcast, Tritoncast. New episodes of Tritoncast are available on the most popular podcasting apps and on UCSDTritons.com. For individual show information and listen links, follow Tritoncast on X @Tritoncast.

GET SOCIAL WITH UC SAN DIEGO CROSS COUNTRY
Keep up with the Tritons all season long on social media through X, Facebook and Instagram. The team's handle is @ucsdxc.

FOR THE YOUNGER CROWD
Got some young Triton fans in your family? If they are eighth grade or under, check out the Junior Triton Club. Membership includes a free t-shirt, admission to over 100 UC San Diego home athletic events and much more!

GEAR
For the latest Triton apparel and accessories, click here.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 24-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 39 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in NCAA Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.