COSTA MESA -- Vanguard cross country has one race down in the fall 2025 season and optimism is high on both squads.  Each is unique this year, as the men lost a couple of long-serving student-athletes and have just seven members on the roster in 2025. Meanwhile, the women added 10 freshmen and a transfer to give Head Coach Bryan Wilkins one of his largest rosters ever, let alone his biggest recruiting class.  The teams have a trio of races left before VU heads to Hawaii for the Pacific West Conference Championships on October 25 and the Lions are ready to exceed their placing in the preseason polls (sixth).
 
The men have two underclassmen, with sophomore Caleb Dickerson and freshman Rylan Starnes.  Dickerson slowly worked his time down in 2024 and ended the year with two times under 27 minutes, concluding with a 54th-place showing at the PacWest Championships in his first year.  Starnes comes from Caprock Academy in Colorado and ran his first college race in a time of 29:51.9.
 
Even though Noah Addison can not race this season, the junior class is where the bulk of the Vanguard lineup resides.  Ommar Arroyo opened his campaign with a 26:43, which is a better showing than in three of his four races from 2024.  Josiah Kirby missed the Vanguard Invite but should be healthy soon and has been improving on his 29-minute runs in 2024 in practice this year.  Jesse O'Campo was close to breaking the 26-minute mark last campaign but did so with ease in race one of 2025, landing in eighth place at the VU Invite to lead the Lions.
 
Cooper Anderson is the lone senior on the squad, and he steadily pushed his time down from around 28 minutes to open last year to crossing the line at the PacWest Championships in under 26 minutes.  He opened his final season with a 26:41, which places him on a potential path to finishing the year with a time under 25 minutes.
 
"The men finished similar to the women last year, but I am hopeful they will move up," expressed Coach Wilkins.  "It will be tough, you know, losing Evan Hernandez, our number one runner from last year, and Anthony [Kennen], who was running pretty strong at the end of last year."
 
"I think if all our returners improve, we still have the potential to be better than last year, but it is going to require all those guys getting better."
 
The women's side of the ledger has a lone senior, but Kate Baranski has been setting the bar the past two seasons for the squad.  She owns the lowest times on the squad (regardless of course length) the past two campaigns, and she just missed on dipping under 18 minutes at the UCR Highlander Invitational by three seconds last fall.  She was eighth at the Golden State Athletic Conference Championships in 2023 and 18th last year at the PacWest Championships, and she is looking to make it three-for-three for being an all-conference runner after her switch from soccer.  She led VU at the home event two weeks ago, placing sixth.
 
After her, the Lions are young.  The sophomore class arrived last year in the form of Giselle Rubio, Sydney Sydney, Hailey Quiroz, Emily Noyes, Madyson Nakamura, and Kaitlyn Barragan, with transfer Brady Wylie joining this complement this year.  Nakamura had the best time last year of the group, with a mark of 18:41.4 at the UCR Highlander and finished 33rd at the PacWest championships, the next Vanguard runner behind Baranski.  Rubio also clocked her fastest time at the Highlander event with an 18:56.7 and is searching for some redemption this year at the PacWest race.  Sydney and Quiroz each had finishes under 20 minutes, with Quiroz hitting 19:58.9 at the Biola Invite and Sydney netting a 19:14.9 at that same race.  The pair finished 18th and 22nd at the VU invite to start this season, with Quiroz collecting a new best at 19:15.4.  in 2024, Noyes and Barragan had PRs of 20:12.5 and 21:16.6, respectively, and Noyes placed 50th at the PacWest Championships, with Barragan in 63rd.  Both started 2025 by resetting those bests, as Noyes crossed the line with a 19:57.9 and Barragan a 20:55.4.  Wylie comes in from Modesto JC and placed 23rd in her inaugural race for the Blue and Gold with a 20:19.6 in 23rd.
 
The freshman class could be its own story due to its size, and all showed pace at the Vanguard Invite.  Haley Butenschoen was 16th with a 19:00.2, just missing a sub-18-minute run in her first collegiate race.  Adrianna Huffstuttler was 25th with a 20:39.9, Ella Murray paced the newcomers in seventh with an 18:09.6, Lauren Phal landed in 13th with an 18:51.2, Kaitlyn Smith was 10th with an 18:31.5, Chase Sullivan was 28th with a 21:04.9, Isabella Sword had an 18:52.4 in 14th, Zoe Tavares was 15th in a time of 18:55.1, and Macey Thomas had a 20:40.3 in 26th.  Six of the nine debutants had 19-minute runs or faster and hung with some of the UCI pack that split the top 10 with Vanguard.  Only ZoeTheodora Taylor did not race but has a best 5K time of 21:12 and is hoping to be on the course tomorrow.
 
"I think we're going to do really well," said Wilkins.  "I really feel like the women's team has the potential to make a good jump this year at the conference level."
 
"Our hope is that we'll be somewhere up in that three, four, five range."
 
The Master's Invite is tomorrow morning at Central Park in Santa Clarita, with the Pomona-Pitzer Invite on October 4 and the UCR Highlander Invite on October 18 before the PacWest Championships on Oahu on October 25.
 
"I think the dream goal this year is to see both of our teams compete well at conference and then have that opportunity of competing at the regional level, and then, we'll see," relayed Wilkins.
 
So, get out to the final three races of the season or get your tickets to Hawaii and make it to all four!  Vanguard cross country has a lot of growth coming, and you don't want to miss it.