“Bittersweet is not the right word,” redshirt senior Kent Morikawa said. “It’s …”

His voice trailed away and escaped him, a lump forming in his throat.

For in the world of cross country in which runners are judged by the smallest seconds, the fastest times and the quickest mile pace, time seemed to stop as Morikawa faced the uncomfortable realization that the results from Saturday’s race really did happen.

That everything that he and his teammates had committed to do since their summer workouts in Mammoth Lakes – the dream to step to the line at Nationals – had to be cut short.

The dream ended in Palo Alto with the West Regional Meet on Saturday.

“It was a tough day,” sophomore Dustin Fay said. “We ran a good race, but other teams were able to find some special magic.”

They ran hard, consistent like they always had with Morikawa (29.43) leading the pack, followed by sophomores Nohe Lema (30:00), Dustin Fay (30:08) and junior Zack Torres (30:33), with redshirt freshman Chase Zukerman (30:51) keeping close form. The metaphor the team used was that they were like a fine-tuned eight-cylinder engine, running smoothly and efficiently.

The runners crossed the finish line feeling good. Out of 172 runners and 25 other teams, the UCLA squad had three in the top 27 with the rest of the scoring five coming in shortly after. To guarantee a spot to Nationals, the team needed at least a fourth-place team finish. Anything beyond that, and its ticket to the NCAA finals would be gone.

And as they stood listening to the scoring officials count down the team results, the runners kept in hushed voices, praying that their name would not be the next one called.

UC Santa Barbara came in 10th place, followed in increasing order by Long Beach State, Arizona State and Oregon. No. 17 Oregon came in sixth place, tied with the Bruins, as UCLA saw their hunt for a national title come to a disappointing end.

“They competed well,” assistant coach Forest Braden said, putting the season in perspective. “We improved a lot this year and we’re only going to get better from here.”

The women’s squad also showed strong improvement, finishing the turbulent year with an 18th place performance.

Redshirt Junior Katja Goldring (21:53) led the way followed by freshman Kelsey Smith (21:56), junior Sarah Toberty (22:08), freshman Annie Mooney (22:08) and freshman Hannah Valenzuela (22:22) rounding out the rest of the scoring five.

But unlike all of the underclassmen who make up both the men and women’s squads, Morikawa will not be able to contribute to any future success.

Not only was Saturday his last cross country race representing UCLA, a thought crept across his mind, the idea that Saturday was his last cross country race, ever.

“After nine years,” said the redshirt senior on ending his cross-country career. “I’ve been at this for nine years.”

“The memories I’ve had from cross country have been fantastic. From the high school races all the way up to the meets with UCLA. Letting go of something like this is going to be one of the hardest things I’ll ever have to do.”