BERKELEY – The Cal cross country team is slated for eight meets this coming fall as the team announced its 2019 schedule on Thursday morning.
 
Cal will start the season with the USF Invitational on Aug. 31 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The men's team won the USF Invitational last season as the Golden Bears defeated numerous schools from across the Bay Area. Senior Garrett Corcoran was named USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week after his winning performance. Ben Harper was the top returner for the Bears as he took seventh place. On the women's side Marea Zlatunich and Annie Boos took 13th and 14th place, respectively as the Cal women finished in third place.
 
Cal will then proceed to a new meet on the schedule for the 2019 season as Cal heads north to the Stump Invitational hosted by UC Davis. The Bears will compete at Wildhorse Golf Club on Sept. 13. After a couple of weeks of training, Cal will return to the site of last year's Pac-12 Championships as the Bears compete in the Stanford Invitational on Oct. 5. That will be the final preparation before the Bears face their end-of-the-season gauntlet.
 
Cal will send its top seven runners to NCAA Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Oct. 19 as part of a split squad. Cal will be visiting the site of the NCAA Championships, in one of the biggest competitions of the cross country season. Last year, the men's team took 18th as Andrew Burkhardt had one of his best races of the season, finishing in 25:10.9 in Madison, Wisconsin. The women took 23rd as Zlatunich took 57th overall as a freshman. The rest of the team will head to the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational on the same day.
 
This year, the Pac-12 Championships will be hosted by Oregon State at Trysting Tree Golf Course, and that is next meet up on the Bears' schedule. Cal will head to Corvallis for the Nov. 1 meet looking to better its work at last year's championships. Burkhardt led all men's returners with a 35th-place finish, while Boos and Zlatunich both posted top-50 finishes.
 
This year's Pac-12 Championships will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Network for the third straight year. The women's championships will begin at 11 a.m. PT and the men's championships will follow at 12 p.m.
 
Cal will then head to Colfax Golf Club in Pullman, Washington, for the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 15. Cal will most likely need to battle the elements as the Bears look to post NCAA qualifying marks. A very young women's squad took 13th at last year's regional while the men took eighth. All of the individuals or teams that qualify will compete at the NCAA Championships on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute.
 
The women's squad dealt with a number of injuries last year, which forced several freshmen into action. The results were encouraging, as Zlatunich emerged alongside Boos at the top of the lineup. Cal will now add in the 2017 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and All-American Brie Oakley, who missed all of last season due to injury.
 
The men's team will have to cope with the loss of a number of strong contributors. Corcoran graduated after becoming the first Bear to reach the NCAA Championship four times in cross country. Kai Benedict, Takeshi Okada, Ryan Peck and Paul Zeiss also received degrees from the number one public institution in the country. Cal will now turn towards Burkhardt, Steven Khan and Collin FitzGerald as key contributors for 2019.
 
2019 Schedule
Aug. 31 – USF Invitational – San Francisco, Calif. – Golden Gate Park
Sept. 13 – Stump Invitational – Davis, Calif. – Wildhorse Golf Club
Oct. 5 – Stanford Invitational – Palo Alto, Calif. – Stanford Golf Course
Oct. 19 – NCAA Pre-Nationals – Terre Haute, Ind. - LaVern Gibson Course
Oct. 19 – Santa Clara Bronco Invitational – Sunnyvale, Calif. - Baylands Park
Nov. 1 – Pac- 12 Championship – Corvallis, Ore. – Trysting Tree Golf Course
Nov. 15 – NCAA West Regional – Pullman, Wash. - Colfax Golf Club
Nov. 23 – NCAA Championship – Terre Haute, Ind. - LaVern Gibson Course