Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Jan 4, 20233 min
In what will likely remain as one of the more stunning transfer announcements in 2023, The Stride Report has confirmed that Virginia's Mia Barnett has verbally committed to transferring to UCLA. The Cavalier star is expected to make the move this semester.
Barnett, who is only a sophomore, was arguably the single-best true freshman in the nation during the 2021-22 academic calendar. With the UVA women, Barnett posted outstanding times of 4:11 for 1500 meters and 4:33 in the mile.
Throughout last winter, Barnett slowly picked up momentum, stunning the nation by utilizing aggressive front-running tactics in the mile prelims at the indoor national meet. That move ultimately allowed Barnett to run her current mile PR and advance to the finals (where she placed 10th).
During that same meet, Barnett also aided in Virginia's DMR squad where they placed 7th.
Fast forward to the spring and it was clear that Barnett still held plenty of momentum. She was racing beyond her years while flexing an excellent understanding of strategy and tactics.
Unfortunately, a simple "off" day at the East Regional Championships left Barnett unable to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. However, Barnett would go on to qualify for the U20 World Championships in the summer.
This past fall was a promising one for the now-former Cavalier sophomore who finished 4th at the Panorama Farms XC Invitational and 17th at the ACC XC Championships. However, very few people saw this mile-centric talent finishing 44th at the NCAA XC Championships, just four spots out from individual All-American honors.
As a result, the Virginia women placed 9th overall as a team.
Barnett's decision to venture back to the west coast and join the UCLA women is admittedly surprising, but also understandable.
The rising UVA star was finding grand success in Charlottesville, Virginia, seemingly searching for what appears to be an unlimited ceiling in terms of her potential.
But Barnett is also a California native and her hometown of La Crescenta neighbors the city of Los Angeles, home of the UCLA Bruins. With proximity to home likely playing a factor, it's easy to see why Barnett chose the women in blue and gold.
We are currently in the first year of Coach Sean Brosnan's tenure as UCLA's distance coach. Brosnan formerly coached at Newbury Park High School, the nation's top distance running program at the prep level.
Barnett appears to be Brosnan's first major transfer win as an NCAA coach. The first-year college coach is working to build a roster that has, as of late, struggled to stay competitive in the PAC-12 (they'll eventually move to the BIG 10).
But with Barnett soon joining this team and a top recruit in Brooke Johnston out of Illinois now signed, there appears to be a promising nucleus of talent now growing in Los Angeles.
As for the Virginia women, Barnett's departure is admittedly a challenging loss. And while it's clear that she is at her best on the track, her scoring value on the grass will be greatly missed.
The Cavaliers were originally expected to bring back their entire top-seven from the NCAA XC Championships where they placed 9th overall. Five of those women were sophomores, including Barnett.
The prospects of Virginia landing on the podium in either 2023 or 2024 seemed like a very realistic goal given the youth of this team. And while that goal is still within reach, losing their top national meet scorer does make that task a bit more challenging.