Cal Set For Conference Championships

BERKELEY – California men's and women's cross country teams commence their championship season campaigns at the Pac-12 Championships on Friday. The women's 6,000-meter race will kick things off at 8:40 a.m., and at 9:40 a.m., the men will compete in the 8,000-meter race. The meet is located at the Agricultural Operations Course on the campus of UC Riverside, a familiar setting for the Bears as they ran the same course earlier this season at the UCR Invitational. Both races will be aired live on the Pac-12 Network for fans to tune in.
 
Cal will face some of the top teams in the nation this weekend on both the men's and women's sides. For the men, there are four Pac-12 teams ranked in the national coach's poll's top-20. Stanford and Colorado are both ranked in the top-10 while Oregon and Washington find themselves in the top-20. For the women, Stanford, Utah, Colorado and Oregon find themselves in spots nine through 12, with Washington clinching the No. 19 ranking. Colorado will seek to defend its 2021 titles this Friday as the reigning Pac-12 champions for both the men's and women's races.
 
At last year's Pac-12 Championships, the Cal men's squad took eighth-place overall while the women's squad took ninth place. Three Golden Bears finished in the top-40, including 2022 returner Garrett MacQuiddy who notched a 34th-place finish. Fellow returner Carrick Denker was just behind MacQuiddy in 39th-place overall.
 
MacQuiddy will once again lead the men's squad at this year's conference championships, alongside fellow returner Claire Yerby on the women's side. Both have been top performers for Cal this year, with the two juniors being the first Bears to cross the line last time out.
 
Yerby had an outstanding performance at the last meet on Oct. 15 at the Bronco Invite. She set her personal best mark of 20:58, which was over a minute and a half quicker than her previous personal record. Yerby notched 33rd-place out of a pool of over 200 competitors.
 
MacQuiddy claimed 55th-place out of over 200 runners with his 24:34.1 time in the 8,000-meter race.
 
A young pack of Bears will race in their first-ever conference championships this Friday, with five men's and four women's squad members making their championship season debuts in 2022.
 
Cal's pool of new runners has impressed this season, with Caden Carney and Landen Lee breaking out onto the collegiate scene to be in the top three Cal-finishers in almost every race this season. On the women's side, Georgia McCorkle and Emilie Barrett have also clinched top Cal-finisher slots in their first seasons racing in the Blue & Gold.
 
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