Sacramento State cross country heads to Stanford University for the second time of the season this weekend but this time a lot bigger stakes are on the line in the NCAA West Regional Championships.

At the regional championships last season, the Sac State men finished 18th out of 21 teams and the women finished 27th out of 28th teams.

Improvement upon those results of last season will serve as the primary goal of the race for Sac State as little by little the team and head coach Rodney Rothoff try to build a winning atmosphere to the program.

“This race is a preview of the direction of our program,” Rothoff said. “Our goal is to improve.”

Having already run at the course this season should give the team a little help in their quest for improvement.

“Being able to be on the course before, it gives us a good advantage,” senior Virginia Grillo said. “We can mentally visualize the parts we struggled on last time and change the outcome.”

Sophomore Dominic Vogl said he also sees the familiarity as being helpful as well as the magnitude of the race.

“I think its helpful running in big meets because you have a lot of people to run with where in a smaller race the runners are more scattered,” Vogl said.

The men will be running in a 10K race at the regional championship that will serve as their longest race of the season. The women will be competing in a 6K race, having only once run at that length this season in their other trip to Stanford.

“This is going to be a challenge for the younger guys,” Rothoff said.

As the race will be the first regional experience for many, it will also be the final chapter for a few on the team in their time with the program including Grillo.

“I’m excited but sad, it’s a bittersweet ending,” Grillo said. “Because it’s my last race, anything goes, you have to finish at your best and let it all go.”