Cal Lutheran women's and men's cross country is set to begin its 2025 season tomorrow morning with the Ventura College Invite.

The Regals are coming off an 8th-place finish in the SCIAC. They return All-SCIAC and All-Region athlete Summer Gelman, as she will look to build off an impressive first year with Cal Lutheran. The Cuesta College transfer became the first Regal since 2013 to be named all-conference, and the first since 2019 to be named all-region.

This is the largest roster that Cal Lutheran has fielded during Brett Halvaks' tenure as head coach. With 15+ athletes, a young group consisting of five upperclassmen, multiple returning sophomores, five freshmen, and two JUCO transfers will look to build on last year's success.

On the men's side, an experienced group will look to replace the top three runners from last year's team, which finished 8th in the SCIAC. The returners, led by Adrian Rodriguez and Nicholas Moore, are joined by three sophomore transfers and three freshmen.

Tomorrow's Ventura College Invite will mark the first time that Cal Lutheran has competed in the event. After that, the teams will head up to The Master's in Santa Clarita before competing at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite in October. That will be the first of three potential races at Pomona's course, as the SCIAC Championships and the NCAA West Regionals will both take place at that course.

As a tune-up for the SCIACs and Regionals, Cal Lutheran will head down to UC Riverside, which houses the fastest course that the Regals and Kingsmen will take on in 2025.

On his program's upcoming season, Halvaks said, "We're excited with the opportunity of having such a big roster this year. A lot of student-athletes can push each other and contribute to this program. Everyone can work together towards one team goal."

The Ventura College Invite begins at 10:00am tomorrow morning for the women and 10:30am for the men.