Monday, November 3, 1997
Men run to a fourth-place finish
M.CROSS-COUNTRY
Men run to a fourth-place finish
By Donald Morrison
Daily Bruin Contributor
PALO ALTO, Calif. — The UCLA men’s cross-country team entered
the Pacific 10 Conference Championships ranked sixth in the
conference, but headed to the UCLA-Stanford football game at
Stanford Stadium on Saturday night with a surprising fourth-place
finish.
The No. 22 Bruins defeated No. 14 Arizona and No. 18 Washington,
racking up a total of 103 points at the nation’s strongest
conference meet despite not having a great team race.
"We felt that if we bumped off a couple of the teams ranked in
front of us we’d be doing really well, which we did," head coach
Bob Larsen said. "But we had mixed results."
The defending Pac-10 champion and Stanford Golf Course
record-holder, Mebrahtom Keflezighi, had mixed feelings about not
winning a race at the Stanford Golf Course for the first time since
1995.
Keflezighi entered the meet favored to defend his Pac-10 crown
but Bernard Lagat of Washington State surprisingly upended
Keflezighi’s bid to repeat as champion.
Lagat won the race with a time of 23 minutes, 59 seconds over
the five-mile, hilly course. Keflezighi did run well enough to
place second in 24:07, but let Lagat pull away the last half-mile
of the race.
"I didn’t do well like I should have," Keflezighi said. "I’m not
used to winning (the Pac-10 title) the year before and then not
winning the year after. I’m not happy about that."
Lagat, a strong middle distance runner, stayed in the front pack
of runners throughout most of the race before he and Keflezighi
pulled ahead. Lagat pulled away with about a half-mile to go and
built up a sizeable lead of about 30 meters against Keflezighi with
about 400 meters to go.
"I knew (Lagat) was going to be there," Keflezighi said. "I was
hoping that he wouldn’t be with me the last 300 meters. I wanted to
make a move but he already made the move and kind of ruined the
plan. I’m going to give it everything to get first at the District
VIII meet."
In team competition, top-ranked Stanford finished an expected
first. The Cardinal won their second straight team title with a low
score of 33 points.
Oregon finished second edging third-place Washington State with
86 points to the Cougars’ 88 points.
Mark Hauser, a middle-distance specialist, finished in a
surprising 11th place for UCLA in 24:51. A relaxed Hauser was the
second Hauser to cross the finish line. Brad Hauser of Stanford
placed fourth and Brent Hauser of Stanford finished 12th.
"I had a bad race two weeks ago and I didn’t dwell on it much,"
Hauser said. "I came out here ready to run. For some reason, I
wasn’t even thinking about the race. I was just thinking about the
football game and whatever else to keep my mind off the race."
Arguably, the most surprising Bruin finish was turned in by
sophomore Will Bernaldo. Bernaldo was the third Bruin to cross the
finish line and 26th runner overall. Bernaldo ran a personal best
time of 25:11 and finished ahead of teammates Devin Elizondo, Dan
Brecht and Matt Olin who normally finish ahead of Bernaldo.
"(Bernaldo’s) race was one of the most impressive," Larsen said.
"We have to give great credit to Hauser too. He’s a middle distance
runner and finishing in the top eleven is what we where shooting
for."
Elizondo, battling tendonitis in his achilles tendon, finished
29th in 25:55. Matt Pitts’ 35th place finish was good enough for a
time of 26:15 and fifth on UCLA’s squad. Matt Olin placed 39th in
26:30 and sophomore, Dan Brecht was disqualified after officials
ruled he interfered with another runner.
"Pitts, Hauser and Keflezighi all had strong races," Larsen
said. "(Elizondo) was off a little bit but that was understandable
because he was injured. Brecht and Olin were off. You could see the
potential, because with two other guys in the top 20 we could’ve
(been) almost tied with Oregon and Washington State."
The Bruins will have two weeks to recover from the Pac-10 meet
and prepare for the important District VIII regional meet in
Tucson. The District VIII meet boasts all the top Division I
schools from the West Coast.
UCLA must finish in the top two to automatically qualify for the
NCAA Championships while a third place finish could give them a
wild-card entry.
"We were very pleased to get fourth overall," Larsen said. "That
was our goal so that we are in position to maybe to do more at the
district meet. If we can stay close to the best teams, the guys
will have confidence, hopefully, going into the next meet."
AARON TOUT / Daily Bruin
Senior Meb Keflezghi finished a disappointing second at the
Pac-10 Championships this weekend.