Nov. 9, 2011

The men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Palo Alto this Saturday to compete in the NCAA West Regional, where spots for the NCAA Championship will be up for grabs. The top two teams from every region will advance automatically to the national meet. The rest of the 31-team field (13 at-large) will be announced on Sunday, no later than 7pm ET.

The men are ranked 21st in the national poll and fourth in the West Region and are gunning for a spot at Nationals. Last year, they finished eighth overall. The women will be looking to improve upon their 10th-place finish at last year's regional.

Competing for the men are seniors Kent Morikawa and Dylan Knight, junior Zack Torres, sophomores Nohe Lema and Dustin Fay, and freshmen Shayne Collins, Chase Zukerman and Lane Werley.

Morikawa was UCLA's No. 1 runner at the Pac-12 Championships, finishing eighth overall. Knight, also one of UCLA's top runners, did not compete do to illness, but will be back this weekend, which will give the Bruins an added boost in the team race.

Representing the Bruin women will be juniors Katja Goldring and Sarah Toberty, sophomores Melissa Skiba and Paisley Pettway and freshen Annie Mooney, Kelsey Smith, Bronte Golick and Hannah Valenzuela.

Goldring has been UCLA's No. 1 runner in almost every meet this year and will again look to lead again this weekend.