California Baptist University
Rossi Relays
OTF Preview: CBU Opens Season on Saturday at the Rossi Relays
2/25/2026 1:44:00 PM | Cross Country & Track
RIVERSIDE--- The 2026 Outdoor Track and Field Season begins this Saturday for the California Baptist University track squad as they will open the year at the Rossi Relays in Claremont, California.
It will be the second outdoor season under Head Coach Sean Smith, and he will bring back a significant number of his athletes from last season on both the men's and women's teams.
After opening up this weekend at the Rossi Relays, the Lancers will have seven more non-postseason meets, including annual trips to the Bryan Clay Invitational and the Stanford Invite. CBU will also compete at the Bob Larsen Distance Carnival at UCLA and the Payton Jordan Invite hosted by Stanford before transitioning to postseason competition.
The Lancers will head back to Arlington, Texas, where they ran last season for the WAC Championships and where the 2025 Cross-Country WAC Championships were held, to compete in the 2026 OTF WAC Championships. It will be CBU's final run as a WAC member in the competition, and they will head to the Big West beginning in the summer. Following the WAC Championships, the Lancers will hope to earn a solid number of qualifiers for the NCAA West Regionals hosted by the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The final step of the journey will hopefully be in Eugene, Oregon, where CBU hopes to send a handful of runners to compete at the 2026 National Championships, as they have in the past three seasons.
Coach Smith will have several solid returners from both the cross-country season and from last season's outdoor team. Ava Dyck will look to defend her WAC Women's 5K title from a season ago, and she will be joined by several other strong returners, including Sarah Schiffman, who was CBU's highest finisher at the WAC Cross-Country Championship in the fall, as well as Mahaut Cooren, who was a 1st Team All-WAC finisher in cross-country season and an All-West Regional finisher. On the men's side, there will be several big-name returners, including Ernesto Ruiz and Pedro Marin, both of whom were West Regional qualifiers last season.
The Lancers will open up the season on Saturday, February 28, at the Rossi Relays hosted by Claremont Mudd-Scripps.
Players Mentioned
