Coming into the 2013 cross country season, senior Alycia Cridebring had lofty goals for her final year at UC Davis after scoring an All-Big West Conference team nod in 2012.
Cridebring, despite battling an injury, led the Aggies to a second-place finish at the Big West Championships and a seventh-place finish at the NCAA West Regional meet.
A native of Pleasant Hill, Calif., Cridebring was a three sport athlete in high school, lettering in track and field, cross country and soccer. She made a splash at the CIF state cross country meet as a senior while qualifying for state championships twice in the 1600-meter race for track and field. Cridebring was also named to the second-team All-Diablo Foothill Athletic League.
The 2013 season started off well for Cridebring who led the Aggies to a first place finish at the Aggie Open with a pace-setting 13:50 4K. This marked the second year in a row of Cridebring winning the Aggie Open.
This meet was followed by two straight missed events and a poor finish at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational which saw Cridebring finish 148th overall and fourth for the UC Davis team.
Like a true leader however, Cridebring rebounded from her poor meet and dominated at both the Big West Championships and NCAA West Regionals.
At Big West Championships, Cridebring led the UC Davis team with a seventh place individual finish, followed closely by teammate senior Sarah Sumpter. While each gave an outstanding effort in the race, the depth of the Cal Poly team proved to be too much as the Aggies fell to second place.
Going into the NCAA West Regionals, Cridebring and the entire UC Davis squad had the National Championships in mind.
Cridebring was sensational, running a season-best 6K time of 20:08. This was good for a 19th place individual placing, which led to a seventh-place finish for the Aggies and revenge against Cal Poly.
Unfortunately, the Aggies were unable to sneak into NCAA Nationals and Cridebring failed to receive one of the at-large individual bids.
While the cross country season is over for Cridebring, Aggie fans will be able to see her dominate once again when track and field season rolls around.
Last season, Cridebring was the Big West Conference Champion in the 1500-meter race and finished second in the 50,000-meter race. She managed to get her name into the UC Davis record books several times, finishing fourth in school history in both the 1,500 meter and the 5K. Cridebring also ran the indoor 3K in 9:26.97, good for second in UC Davis history.
While Cridebring is finishing up her career as an Aggie, she is planning to begin a new career in environmental science. If her time representing UC Davis is any indication, there are only good things to come from senior Alycia Cridebring.
