Underdog isn’t the right word, but it’s the first one that comes to mind.

Maybe that’s why junior David McDonald spent the weekend before today’s Notre Dame Invitational watching “Rudy.”

Not unlike the story of one young man’s journey to make it on the Notre Dame football team and find salvation on the field, the men’s and women’s cross country teams will enter South Bend, Ind., looking to prove that they belong there.

Fresh off a race at the Stanford Invitational, the Bruin runners faced a short week of practice to recoup their strength and regain their mental focus to step up to the line at Notre Dame.

For the No. 30 men’s squad, the field will include seven other nationally ranked programs, including No. 3 Oregon. On the women’s side, the competition will feature 18 schools ranked higher than UCLA, led by No. 1 Villanova and No. 2 Florida State.

“There are a lot of schools to beat. But if they fall, if they slip up, we’re going to be right there to get them,” coach Forest Braden said.

Similar to “Rudy,” today’s invitational will be an opportunity for the UCLA cross country squads to take a chance, a concept that is not unfamiliar to the teams. Throughout the season, Braden has instilled a work ethic and set of training rules to help develop and build the young runners. One of those foundations: Take risks.

“You have to keep trying, keep pushing yourself to the limit,” Braden said. “If you never take that chance, you’re never going to realize how good you can be.”

Two of those runners who have grasped this concept are freshmen Pablo Rosales and Sierra Vega. Both have made prominent contributions early on in the season, and both have the team’s drive to always improve.

Alongside McDonald, Dylan Knight, Nohe Lema, Jake Matthews, Kent Morikawa and Brett Walters, Rosales wants to take a chance and prove the team’s worth today.

“We want to tell everyone, ‘We’re here and we’re here to stay,’” Rosales said. “We want to show them that we can actually compete with them, and we won’t fall back.”

For Vega, who will be running with Shannon and Amber Murakami, Kelcie Wiemann, Melissa Skiba, Allie Lopez and Paisley Pettway, the chance to run at Notre Dame will enable her to find the fuel within herself.

“On those hard days when you want to give up, you can’t, because you’re running for more than just yourself. You’re running for the school, the coaches and the team,” she said. “We’re running on success, potential and hopes for the future.”

Both Rosales and Vega spoke of striving to reach their mental peaks in order to find serenity and peace – the runner’s high. It will push them, and it will follow them. It will give them purpose.

To run is to live, and everything else is secondary.

With this vow, the runners hope this meet will be a stepping-stone to success.

“I know what we can accomplish, I know how good we can be, and as long as they believe it, as long as they know how good they can be, we’re going to get there,” Braden said.