By Megan Sanders, November 18, 2025
The Cal Poly Pomona men’s and women’s cross-country teams qualified for the NCAA Championships with top three finishes Nov. 8 at the NCAA West Regionals meet in Monmouth, Oregon.
The women’s team finished in second place at regionals, with standout performances from senior Vivian Martinez, red-shirt sophomore Galilea Jimenez and red-shirt junior Alondra Arias, who each placed in the top 20 and broke the previous school record for fastest time run at a NCAA West Regionals meet.
According to head coach Chris Bradford, the women surpassed his already high expectations for this race, as they went out and raced with pure determination for a top three qualifying spot at nationals.
“That was the first time I saw the women’s team fully believe in themselves,” Bradford said. “That was what they improved on throughout the season. When that gun went off, they had determination, they had focus, and we’ve seen it every day in practice.”
This was the women’s team’s highest finish in program history at the regional level and the sixth time in school history the women have made it to the national meet. The last time was in 2019 when the team qualified as an at-large bid.
This season was also a big jump compared to last year, where the women came short of qualifying with an 11th place finish at regionals.
According to Martinez, the main goal the women had at regionals was to qualify, and now they are laser focused on what they can do at nationals.
“I think this regionals we took it as it’s our last opportunity,” Martinez said. “We had to leave it all out there, but then also run for each other.”
On the men’s side, the team placed third and had three members in the top 20 at NCAA West Regionals, moving up one spot from last season.
CPP red-shirt junior Ricardo Vargas finished second overall with a time of 29:30 and broke the school record for fastest men’s time run at a regionals meet.
Despite placing, the team felt they had more to give and are ready to lay it all on the line at nationals, according to Vargas.
“Even with the third-place finish, we were all disappointed and upset because the goal was mostly to win,” Vargas said. “If you were to ask us two years ago on that same course, we were celebrating the fact that we even made it to the national championships, so the mentality has definitely changed, and we’ve gotten more competitive.”
Earlier in the season, both the men’s and women’s teams had the chance to compete on the championship course in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“Now that we know what the course looks like, I think we will run an even better race come nationals, because we have the experience on the course,” Vargas said.
The Broncos will finalize their preparation, lock down their goals and travel east to tackle the championship course again Nov. 22.
Feature image courtesy of Tom Zasadzinski