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IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's cross country team begins the 2017 season this week as it heads to Malibu for the Pepperdine Invitational on Friday, Sept. 1.
 
The race will be held at Alumni Park on the Pepperdine campus with the women's 4K kicking things off at 4 p.m., and the men's 5K set to start at approximately 4:30 p.m. The Anteaters are one of four men's teams entered in the meet as they will be competing against the host Waves, and fellow Big West members CSUN and Long Beach State.
 
MEET REWIND
This is the second year in a row the 'Eaters will open the new campaign at the Pepperdine Invitational. In 2016, UC Irvine went 2-0 in dual-meet scoring, defeating Pepperdine, 21-39, and Long Beach State, 20-43. Izzak Mireles (16:07.13), Hector Garcia (16:10.53) and Sam Ayala (16:13.96) each registered a top-10 finish. The Waves' Nick Heath won the race and will be looking to defend his title in 2017.
 
THE SQUAD
UCI welcomes back six letterwinners from a 2016 squad that won three regular-season meets and took fourth at the Big West Championships.
 
"The goal is to get into the top three at the conference meet," UCI distance coach Chris Evans said. "We may have lost our top runner from last year, but we return a lot of our team and we've got a great group."
 
Leading the way is fifth-year senior Izzak Mireles, who brings a wealth of experience to a young team. Mireles had four top-10 showings last year, and was the team's second finisher at the NCAA West Regional. Sophomore Hector Garcia also returns after a standout freshman campaign. Garcia was the Anteaters' top runner at the West Regional and placed 16th overall at the Big West meet.
 
In addition, UCI brings back juniors Ashton Garcia and Andrew Graciano, along with sophomores Sam Ayala and Michelangelo Zavala. Junior Jon Rodriguez rejoins the squad after taking a season off last fall.
 
New to the program are freshmen Kit Carter (Poway HS), Ravi Sharma (Arcadia HS) and Xavier Weaver (Franklin HS). At the high school level, Carter and Sharma both advanced to the CIF State Cross Country Championships, and Weaver was a two-time Sac-Joaquin Section qualifier.
 
"I'm really excited about how these guys have come together," Evans added. "They're self-starters. They have taken the responsibility of making this team better onto themselves."
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 16, when it heads to the Inland Empire for the UC Riverside Invitational.