Saturday’s Stanford Invitational featured a fast course, the warm Palo Alto sun and nationally ranked programs. It would be a race with little room for error.

As a result, the men’s and women’s cross country teams will look at their respective fourth and fifth-place finishes at the Stanford Invitational and know that they can improve.

While coach Forest Braden said he was “pleased” by the performances from both squads, he said more can be done.

“We know we’re not where we need to be, where I want us to be, but we’re getting there,” Braden said.

In a competitive field featuring 231 runners from 26 teams, the men’s team finished behind top-ranked Stanford, No. 15 Arkansas and No. 4 Northern Arizona, in that order.

Junior Dylan Knight led the team in the 8-kilometer course with a time of 24:13 and an 18th overall finish, with Nohe Lema (24:20), David McDonald (24:27), Pablo Rosales (24:40) and Spencer Knight (24:41) rounding out the top five Bruin scorers.

McDonald, who led the team at the Aztec Invitational last week, identifies with the team’s “resilience” going forward.

“We knew it was going to take work. It was just a matter of fighting for every place and putting it all on the line,” he said.

For a team that is constantly learning, the opportunity to compete against highly-ranked programs was a valuable experience.

“It’s nice to see these other schools and say, ‘OK, this is the national level, this is the level we have to train at, this is the level we have to race at,’” Braden said.

“We’ve got to see where we stack up, see where we’ve got to go from here and what holes we have to fix.”

One of those holes that will be addressed over the course of the season is experience, especially with the women’s team.

Senior Shannon Murakami was the third-fastest runner in the women’s 6 km event, leading the team with a time of 20:34.

While there was strong front-running, inconsistent pack movement from a freshmen-dominant group hindered a higher overall team performance. Sierra Vega (21:02), Kelcie Wiemann (21:42), Melissa Skiba (22:15) and Amber Murakami (23:10) were the rest of the scoring team.

“We had a big gap in between our first to fifth runners,” Braden said. “Inexperience was one factor, and the competition was fierce out there. If we can get packed up a little bit more that’s 10, 20 points just right there.”

“It comes down to knowing that every person counts. … A lot has to do with experience and confidence that comes with age,” Murakami added.

Of the 24 competing teams, the UCLA women’s squad finished fifth behind No. 13 Stanford, Cal, Long Beach State and Cal Poly, respectively.

The men’s and women’s teams come back ready to train and prepare knowing they have areas to focus on to compete on a high level in a short yet competitive cross country season. Both squads will step up to the starting line again on Oct. 1 in South Bend, Ind. for the Notre Dame Invitational.

“We had a pretty good showing at Stanford,” Murakami said. “I definitely believe that our team can do a lot better. We’ll bring that to the table in the next few races.”