UC Irvine men's cross country has a storied history, winning back-to-back NCAA Division II titles in 1975 and 1976, before making the move to Division I where the Anteaters have claimed nine Big West Championships.
 
With a strong tradition already established, Vince O'Boyle, who took over as head coach in 1982, knew he had to keep that culture alive, and he started by recruiting the right mix of student-athletes from both the high school and junior college levels.
 
"When recruiting those guys, we hit it off right away and had a good relationship from the start," O'Boyle recalled. "I knew how good they were running-wise, but I also got to know them as people and it seemed to click right from the get-go."
 
That was the foundation of a dominant stretch that saw UCI win seven conference titles in O'Boyle's first 10 years at the helm. One of the championships that stood out during that decade came 34 years ago.
 
In 1986, UC Irvine was led by its top two returners from the previous year's Pacific Coast Athletic Association (renamed the Big West Conference in 1988) championship team in seniors Ralph Garibaldi and Rod Curry. O'Boyle added on to that experience by recruiting two junior transfers in Richard Graves and Gus Quinonez. The 'Eaters also received significant contributions from sophomore Rick Wilhelm, who sat out the 1985 season, and freshmen Steve Imlay and Mike Wall.
 
The Anteaters quickly gelled as a team, winning meets at Riverside and Cal Poly before finishing third at the prestigious Stanford Invitational.
 
"In the beginning of the season, we took one meet at a time, knowing that Stanford was a big one for us," O'Boyle said. "We knew what we had to prepare for going into each competition. All the guys understood the importance of the Stanford meet; we wanted to do well there, and getting third set us up for the conference and regional meet."
 
With momentum on its side, UCI didn't disappoint, defending its conference crown for the program's first back-to-back titles, and fifth championship overall. The 'Eaters commanded the individual leaderboard with their top-five scorers combining for a school-record 16 points and finishing well ahead of second-place New Mexico State (98). The staggering 82-point margin of victory remains the largest in conference history, while their near-perfect 16 points stood as a Big West meet record until 2007.
 
Garibaldi, who was named the PCAA Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year, secured the individual title by covering the 10000-meter course at Woodward Park (Fresno) in 30:52.1. Quinonez was the runner-up at 31:02.5, while Graves (31:05.6) and Curry (31:15.7) were third and fourth, respectively. Imlay (31:33.2) and Wilhelm (31:39.0) also placed among the top-seven.

"The thing about this group was they all got along and they were mature," O'Boyle said. "They were easy to work with, they followed the formula and had the discipline to succeed. When they came in, there was a family mentality and they all had the idea that they were going to make this work."
 
The Anteaters continued their impressive postseason run by qualifying for their first NCAA Division I Championships following a third-place finish at the NCAA District 8 meet. At nationals, the 'Eaters beat their ranking by five spots with an 11th-place showing. Quinonez was UC Irvine's top individual finisher.

 "The regional meet with teams like Oregon, Stanford and UCLA made it difficult to get to nationals," O'Boyle added. "No one picked UCI to get into the NCAA meet, but our guys all believed in themselves and we went in there with the attitude that we were going to prove ourselves."