Thursday, November 6, 1997
M. Cross Country Notebook
Two members of the men’s cross-country team, Mason Moore and
Paul Muite, have put themselves in contention to crack into UCLA’s
top seven after strong race performances on Saturday. Moore and
Muite competed with 174 other individuals at the five-mile open
race prior to the Pac-10 Championships at Stanford.
Moore finished 24th in 26:30 and Muite finished right behind
Moore in 26th with a time of 26:41. UCLA head coach Bob Larsen was
pleased with Moore and Muite’s performances.
"Those are good finishes for those guys," Larsen said. "(Muite)
is still running a bit conservatively, but he came on strong at the
end."
Larsen has not ruled out the possibility of sending either Moore
or Muite to compete at the District VIII meet next Saturday in
Tucson, Ariz.
"Well, right now Moore and Muite are the eighth and ninth guys,"
Larsen said. "We’ll see how the workouts go."
***
After the Pac-10 Championships on Saturday, the Bruins climbed
the Martin Surfacing Poll. UCLA made the jump from No. 22 to No. 16
after its fourth-place finish. UCLA earned 138 points, the most
they’ve received in the five polls released this year.
Stanford, despite winning its second straight Pac-10 title by a
margin of 53 points, fell to the No. 2 slot. Arkansas took over the
No. 1 ranking with 392 points, three points ahead of the Cardinal,
who had 389 points.
Oregon dropped from No. 5 to No. 6 this week after finishing
second place at the Pac-10 Meet. While the Washington State
football team fell out of the top ten in football, its
cross-country team remained No. 10 in the country.
Arizona dropped to No. 21 and Washington fell to No. 25 after
both teams finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the
conference.
"I hope that we do make it nationals and show that we should be
higher than what we’re presently ranked," Larsen said. "I guess
16th is reasonable, but I think that we should be 14th right now.
It’s nice to see that (the pollsters) have us going in the right
direction."
Larsen does have an argument since the Bruins defeated No. 15
Brigham Young and No. 14 Iowa State earlier in the year.
***
Larsen is pleased with the Bruins’ workouts so far this week,
especially on Tuesday. He believes that they are excelling in their
workouts at the right time.
"The guys are showing great strength as we pick up the pace
later in the season," Larsen said. "Tuesday’s workout was critical
that it be the right kind of workout where they prove to themselves
that they are in great shape.
Mebrahtom Keflezighi, Mark Hauser and the other members of the
top seven ran four one-mile repeats on Tuesday while other members
ran three one-mile repeats.
Keflezighi turned in back-to-back one-mile times of 4 minutes,
10 seconds and 4:11. Hauser turned in a time of 4:12 for one of his
miles and Dan Brecht ran 4:16 in his last mile. Muite ran a
personal best time of 4:17 in his last mile, cutting four seconds
off his previous best time.
"There was a lot of excitement out there on the track," Larsen
said. "It was a pretty active afternoon."
***
Since 1973, the Stanford Golf Course has been the cordial host
of the Pac-10 Championships, but next year, the championships are
leaving and won’t return to Stanford until 2006. Starting next
season, the championships will rotate among the Pac-10 schools. In
1998, Oregon will host the championships.
Notes compiled by Donald Morrison, Daily Bruin Contributor.