Etrain Team Power Rankings: #14 UCLA Bruins

By: Garrett Zatlin

Reminder of the list so far...

#25 Eastern Michigan Eagles

#24 Penn State Nittany Lions

#23 Minnesota Gophers

#22 Cornell Bears
#21 Furman Paladins
#20 Florida State Seminoles

#19 Colorado State Rams

#18 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

#17 NC State Wolfpack

#16 Penn Quakers

#15 Virginia Tech Hokies

#14 UCLA Bruins

#13 BYU Cougars

#12 Louisville Cardinals

#11 Michigan Wolverines

#10 Virginia Cavaliers

#09 Oregon Ducks

#08 Oklahoma State Cowboys

#07 Iona Gaels

#06 Mississippi Rebels

#05 Villanova Wildcats

#04 Wisconsin Badgers

#03 Syracuse Orange 

#02 Stanford Cardinals
#01 Colorado Buffalos

14. UCLA Bruins

Flotrack’s #14: BYU Cougars

Coach: Mike Maynard

Notable Departures: Jordan Senko
Notable Additions: N/A

Projected Scoring Five: Sergey Sushchickh (SR), Lane Werley (SR), Ferdinand Edman (JR), Austin O’Neil (JR), Nick Hartle (SR)

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I am a big fan of the Bruins this year. I think they are poised to have an outstanding season and have a huge impact across the nation. They are a highly experienced group of guys that are talented at so many different areas. Don’t sleep on the Bruins this year.

UCLA came into last season with not too many expectations. They had just lost a heavy portion of their team to graduation leaving Werley and Sushchickh to gather the troops and rebuild the team. The first race of 2014 would be the Nevada Twilight meet where UCLA coasted to an easy 22 point win. They would have another shakeout race at BYU that actually became slightly competitive. BYU and UCLA battled it out with BYU coming out on top. However, UCLA was without their promising front man, Lane Werley. While it was entertaining, the real show would come three weeks later at the Washington Invite. With so many top guys graduating and a loaded field of top teams, UCLA wasn’t considered to be a top five team threat. That of course, was the wrong assumption as the Bruins shocked the field taking second overall! Stanford (not stacked), UVA, Villanova, Oklahoma, and Washington all fell to the Bruins. NAU took the title by 10 points. The Bruins squeezed four spots together and took spots 9 through 12. It was an unreal display of pack running. Unfortunately, the freshman Myles Smith was still adjusting to the big racing scene and fell off the pack. He still finished a respectable 30^th, but it wasn’t enough to get the title. Had he stayed with the pack, NAU would’ve lost and the Bruins would've won. UCLA left Washington with new vigor and confidence. They had just taken down some of the biggest teams in the nation and had plenty of time to improve. While Washington served as a high profile race, the Wisconsin Adidas Invite would be just as challenging. The field was flooded with nationally ranked teams. Syracuse, Wisconsin, Stanford, NAU, and more were all entered in the field hungry for a win to establish their ranking. UCLA was on that same mission. The pace was quick and the tactical runners had to settle for an all-out grind. The pace played a heavy role against the Bruins as their entire scoring five was completely mixed up. Hartle ran a very strong race placing 15^th overall. Jonah Diaz was 34^th, Edman was 46^th, Werley was 71^st, and Sushchickh was 76^th. The pack that was once so tight at Washington, got strung out by the brutally quick pace. The poor time-spread hurt UCLA’s score, but they still finished a very strong 7^th place overall behind some of the best XC teams in the nation. The run was still very impressive, but come post season, they would have to step up their game. Now it was PAC 12’s, and things weren’t getting any easier. In fact, things became only harder for the Bruins in what was arguably the best conference in the nation with Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, and Washington all in their prime. UCLA simply couldn’t handle that much firepower. Colorado crushed the competition like it was nothing. Oregon established their top five and thrived off of a 1-2 finish. Stanford was only three points off from Oregon while Washington was 17 points off from Stanford. It was an all-out battle of scary good talent and UCLA faltered. They finished 5^th overall by falling into a massive 81-point hole behind Washington. Another fast race once again spread out their pack and Edman was the lone Bruin inside the top 30 (18^th overall). UCLA went back home humbled by the talent they had just witnessed. The Washington team they had defeated twice that year, was now soundly ahead of them and the other teams seemed just too good to keep up. The guys that were once projected for a top-10 finish at NCAA’s, were now just hoping that they could survive one more race and make it to Terre Haute. The Bruins entered the West region, against what was essentially the same teams at PAC-12’s minus Colorado. The goal was simple: execute and advance. Sure enough, that’s what the Bruins did. They put two in the top 20 and all five in the top 30. The team finished 4^th overall, this time ahead of Washington and only 7 points off from Stanford. UCLA was going to nationals. It wasn’t the prettiest race ever, but they did their job and lived to see another race. The team traveled across the country and stepped into Indiana. It was tough to say where UCLA would place. They had raced so many of the top teams in the field already and seemed to be back on the rise after coming awfully close to Stanford at regionals. A top-10 finish wasn’t completely out of the question. After a summer of long miles and a fall full of workouts, UCLA toed the line at the NCAA championships. It was amazing how far they had come after losing so many teammates to graduation. No one truly expected them to be in the spot they were now. The starting gun was fired and 31 teams launched from the start. UCLA tried to find the pack running that was once so successful for them early on in the season. Unfortunately, the pack couldn’t stay together and they began to disperse. Sushchickh was their top man coming in at 54^th. The rest were 92nd, 113^th, 125^th, and 158^th. The Bruins tallied a score 454 and finished 18^th overall.

Despite their tough NCAA performance, UCLA had return home with some pride. When the season began they could have very easily complained about the loss of their seniors, but they didn’t. They picked themselves up, went back to work, and returned to nationals when very few thought they could. How can you not like that? Besides the team atmosphere I love that a lot of these guys are veterans now. Every single runner from NCAA's last year returned. Their probable top five are all juniors and seniors and it’s tough not to be excited about that. It also doesn’t hurt that they all have some pretty solid 5k PR’s…(Werley-13:53, Edman-13:56, O’Neil-14:18, Sushchickh-14:19, Smith-14:32, Diaz-14:42, Hartle-14:44). Out of all of these guys, I’m most looking forward to seeing how Smith does in his sophomore year. The kid now has experience on the big stage and had a decent year on the track. I feel like he is the next star of this team if he keeps developing. As for the rest of this squad, they have it all. They’ve got depth, they’ve got talent, they’ve got experience, and they’ve got the times. What more could you ask for? The only issue I have is their inconsistency. Very rarely did they all click on the same day. That is going to need to change. I would also like to see Werley get back to his sophomore year fitness where he placed 25^th at NCAA’s and earned All-American. These are all pretty reasonable to ask. If they can do that, then watch out for the Bruins to make some noise.

UCLA was #16 on Flotrack’s rankings and I have to say that’s pretty fair. I think they are a little more reliable than the other teams ahead of them right now, but it’s tough not to like them around that sweet spot of 15. There’s not too much to argue here, but I will say that I have a lot more faith in UCLA than most fans do.