PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State cross country program will encounter its first true test of the season Saturday when the men's and women's teams race at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational at Baylands Regional Park.
 
One thing the Vikings will NOT be doing on the trip: going to a museum of Egyptian artifacts. That team-bonding experience, which head coach Jonathan Marcus suggested, got shot down. Quickly.
 
Nothing against museums, but the Vikings may want a less mentally demanding activity after what should be a showcase of the work they've put in to this point in the season. That's what the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational offers the Vikings. The meet falls less than two weeks ahead of the Big Sky conference meet, which kicks off the postseason stretch for the Vikings.
 
A strong showing Saturday, and the Vikings will head into their postseason swing with a boost of confidence.
 
"This is the first real test, so to speak, of where we are at competitively. Not just from a physical standpoint, but a mental standpoint," Marcus said.
 
"It's going to be a fast course with fast people. We're ready to run fast. We're excited to run fast. We're essentially going to have it be an objective exercise where we go and compete and see how things lay out for us. And from there, we have essentially a week or so of preparation before we roll into the Big Sky meet."
 
The speed of the Bronco Invite may be the most obvious departure for the Vikings from their first four meets of the season. The Vikings have practiced a conservative racing strategy to this point of the season, running the first half of races as a team before picking it up over the latter half.
 
The basic structure of that plan won't change Saturday, according to Marcus. However, the paces over each part of that plan will pick up.
 
"Our slow pace is going to be faster, and our fast pace that we target will be faster. It's just accelerating everything that we're doing," Marcus confirmed.
 
The faster paces have led to some excitement within the team. Marcus isn't too concerned about his runners going out too fast. The team chose the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational as its last pre-conference meet intentionally.
 
"Fast people do fast things and we're fast, too. That's why we went to a fast course because we're a fast team. We've done a lot of training on stairs, on speed, on wickets, on sprints. Fast is nothing new to us," Marcus said.
 
"We've strategically picked a higher-caliber invite to go to before we see higher-caliber competition at the Big Sky meet and then arguably the highest caliber of competition in the NCAA outside of the national championships at the NCAA West Regional. So, it's just a progression of exposure to higher and higher levels of competition. But also understanding that there's no imposter syndrome. We've done a high volume of work for several weeks and we do belong."
 
The work to this point has included plenty of strong showings over the first month to six weeks of the season. The Viking women won the Oak Knoll Loop Run behind three top 10 finishes from Jamie Zamrin (6th), Abi Swain (7th) and Emma Stolte (8th). Those three made the top 10 a week later at the Mike Johnson Classic, with Swain and Zamrin finishing second and third overall, respectively.
 
The men, meanwhile, have gotten faster and faster. They started two weeks later than the women but have chopped lumps of time off their finishes each week. Zach Grams has shown that better than anyone. He ran a relaxed pace in his first race of the season at the Oak Knoll Loop Run, finishing the 8k in 30:45.5. A week later, he ran four minutes faster, finishing in 26:37.8 at the Mike Johnson Classic. Eight days after that, he ran the Charles Bowles Invitational in 25:48.1.
 
Grams and the rest of the Viking men will likely drop their times even further at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational, as will the Viking women.
 
The meet isn't the end goal for the Vikings. Those goals come two weeks later with the Big Sky meet in Missoula, Mont., and then the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 10. Even still, the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational represents a chance to see how the Vikings measure up against a higher level of competition.
 
"We're seeing how people respond to the call to competition," Marcus said of the Bronco Invite. "For us, it's more of an explore and discover type of meet so we kind of have an idea of what we're capable of when we go to the Big Sky meet and the NCAA West Regional. Because the last thing we want is to have unrealistic expectations of any individual or the team collectively. And this will kind of solidify that expectation or data versus who do we have on this roster that really loves competing and who is going to grow into a love for competing."
 
So, a love of competing is a must. A love of museums? Not required, but still nice if you have it.
 
MEET INFO:
Saturday, Oct. 14 – Santa Clara Bronco Invitational – Santa Clara, Calif. (Baylands Regional Park)
 
FOLLOW:
Live Results
 
MEET SCHEDULE:
Time                Event
8:45 a.m.         Men's 8k Invitational
9:30 a.m.         Women's 6k Invitational