University of California, Santa Cruz

Every year, talented cross country and track & field athletes choose to compete at UC Santa Cruz over a variety of NCAA Division I, II and III programs for many reasons.  From the world-class academic opportunities of the University of California, to our incredibly beautiful campus, UC Santa Cruz is an amazing place to go to school.  Consistently named as a top university for undergraduate research, UCSC offers unique opportunities to make connections and gain early experience in your prospective career. In addition to this, athletes come to UC Santa Cruz because they want to be a part of something special.  We are a Division III program that strives for excellence on the national level, while we seek our maximum potential both on and off the track.

The Recruiting Process
Our team is formed through recruiting rather than open tryouts at the beginning of the season.  For prospective Slugs, it is important that you understand the recruiting process.  We spend the Spring and Summer of a prospective athlete’s Junior year, and the fall of their Senior year narrowing our recruiting lists.  During the winter and spring of an athlete’s Senior year, we will spend as much time as possible getting to know our top recruits both as athletes and as people. We typically finish our recruiting class by mid-March of a prospective athlete's Senior year. For prospective Slugs we suggest the following:
1. Contact us: Head Coach David Klech via email dklech@ucsc.edu
2. Fill out the recruit form:
Men’s Recruit Form
Women’s Recruit Form
3. Make a visit to our campus: Come and visit one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world! Contact Head Coach David Klech via email to schedule a time to meet while you are here.
Additionally, the UCSC office of admissions offers a variety of in-depth campus tours, which you can schedule ahead of time here: https://admissions.ucsc.edu/visit-ucsc/tours#campus-tours
4. Send us a video: Due to the number of athletes that contact us every year, we are physically unable to make it out to see everyone compete. Especially if you compete in a technical event like sprints, hurdles, jumps, or throws, we encourage you to send us a video of you competing in or practicing your event. Email to David Klech (dklech@ucsc.edu).
5. Plan to see us compete: While it is often hard to meet with recruits on their competition days, it may be extremely valuable for you to watch us compete to get an idea of what it is like to be a UC Santa Cruz student-athlete.  Visit our main page for our schedule.