SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz’s Evie Marheineke, one of the top distance runners in Archbishop Mitty High history, will extend her academic and athletic careers at UCLA.

The Monarchs senior announced her decision to compete for the Bruins’ cross country and track and field programs on social media on Tuesday.

“I’m really excited,” said Marheineke, noting two major factors in her decision were being close to home as well as the beach. “Once I saw the campus I fell in love.”

Marheineke said distance coach Andrew Ferris was “nice and supportive,” and that she enjoyed meeting her future teammates while on a visit last weekend.

She chose UCLA, set to compete in its first Big 10 Cross Country Championships on Nov. 1, over Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. She plans to major in either medicine or public health with aspirations of getting into nursing.

“What has impressed me most about Evie is her commitment and determination as an athlete,” Monarchs coach Ryan Olein said. “She knows what it takes to improve as a runner and is simultaneously highly coachable. Her ability to persevere is impressive. Training as an elite distance runner involves inevitable challenges. Evie never faltered, always bouncing back stronger. She is a consummate competitor.”

Both of Marheineke’s parents competed in track and field at San Francisco State University. Her father, John, was a decathlete who specialized in the pole vault, and her mother, Marie, competed in cross country and competed in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter races, and also threw the javelin for the track and field team.

Because of her parents’ love for track and field, Marheineke spent plenty of time with the Santa Cruz Track Club when she was a child. By the time she was 7, she competed in her first race in Oakland. Despite the competition taking place in a downpour, Marheineke wasn’t deterred from continuing to put in heavy hours into running.

Marheineke was in elementary school when her mother coached cross country at Salesian Junior High in Watsonville. She trained with and beat older runners at competition though her results were unofficial and didn’t count for the team.

By the time enrolled at Mitty for her freshman year, she was already one of the top runners in the West Catholic Athletic League.

“The biggest reason for Evie’s success is her genuine love for running,” Olein said. “She’s dedicated to mastering her craft, consistently doing all the little things needed to stay on track with her training. She puts in the work and shows up to the race to win.”

In cross country, she is the league’s two-time defending champion. She is the defending Central Coast Section Division II champion and has posted top-three finishes all three seasons. She took seventh in the CIF State Championships last season. She holds school records in the 2.9 and 3-mile distances, as well as 4,000 and 5,000 meters.

In track and field, she took first at the WCAL Championships in both the 1,600 and 3,200 as both a freshman and sophomore. She placed 10th in the state in the 3,200 as a freshman.

She skipped participating in both events last spring as she dealt with health issues. She has battle low iron levels for much of the past three years and was finally properly diagnosed after meeting with a sports physician.

She takes supplements every other day to help keep her iron level normal.

“It was hard but I definitely needed to do that,” she said of not running the 1,600 and 3,200 last season. “I wouldn’t be competing at the level I am now if I didn’t take that break and figure out was going on.”

Marheineke plans to focus on her development early on at UCLA and hopes to become an NCAA Championships qualifier.