By Christian Malone, August 29, 2023
Cal Poly Pomona’s men’s and women’s cross-country rosters are headed into the 2023 season eager for a chance to take bigger strides beyond last season’s western region success.
The 2022 season was a mixed bag for the Broncos. The men’s team was able to secure a second-place finish at the CCAA Championships last November as well as fifth place at the NCAA Division II Cross Country West Region Championships. The women’s team, meanwhile, secured fourth place in both the state and regional championships, its second highest regional finish in program history.
In spite of their impressive regional performances, both squads failed to qualify for the NCAA national championships for the first time in 10 years.
While the result was not what the team was hoping for heading into last season, head coach Chris Bradford remains confident that the team is ready to step up and perform this year.
“To finish fifth in the region, you know, it was ultimately a disappointing meet for us,” Bradford said of the men’s regional championships last year. “But we’ll bring every single guy back who ran in conference or regionals, so hopefully they’re a year older, they’re stronger, and that extra year together should really put us in that position to be top three in regionals and top one or two in the conference.”
On the women’s side, Bradford feels that the roster was already on an upward trajectory, and he hopes they continue toward greatness this year.
“They were really young last year and, quite honestly, last year was such a huge learning curve for them,” Bradford said. “Going into the regional meet ranked outside the top 10 and then to finish fourth in the conference and fourth at the regional meet, that was such a huge jump for them.”
One area the coaching staff has focused on improving heading into this fall is their confidence.
“One thing we’ve been talking about a lot is mental preparation,” Bradford said. “You know, working on the mental side of racing, the mental side of workouts and trying to improve that. I really do think that’s something that can help us go to another level.”
The sentiment that the team’s mentality was a limiting factor was echoed by sophomore runner Vivian Martinez.
“I think we dealt with a lot of confidence issues,” Martinez said. “It’s kind of challenging going out there, and it gets a little nerve wracking, especially before races.”
As the 2023 season approaches, Martinez said she recognizes now more than ever how important one’s mentality is thanks to the team’s coaching staff. She added that while she firmly believed running was primarily an exercise in physical endurance when she ran in high school, it wasn’t until running at CPP that she recognized how much of a mental test running can be.
Ricardo Vargas, a sophomore runner on the men’s squad, added that the team has a better chance of reaching its goals this year simply because of how much more experienced they are headed into the fall.
“We were a young team,” Vargas said. “We spent the majority of last season building up that young team, so I think we’ve been able to mature these last two years, and I think it’ll really show once we get the mental side of things translating into the races.”
As a freshman last year, Vargas was the sole Bronco that qualified for the NCAA Division II National Championships. He said he is most looking forward to racing as a team again this year.
With both rosters now a year older and far more mentally prepared than the previous season, the primary goal now is for the team to bounce back and make it to the national championships again. In Martinez’s eyes, the squads’ growth over the offseason has given them all the tools they need to reach that goal.
“With the conditions we had last year and seeing that we did pretty well without our full training and not being where we could have been, we know that if we did that last year, we can definitely do better this year,” Martinez said.
Both rosters will kick off the 2023 season at the Seawolf Invite in Fresno, California Saturday, Sept. 2, where they hope to continue to prepare for the CCAA Championships Oct. 21.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics