Monday, November 17, 1997
Championship hopes are shattered by defeat
W. CROSS COUNTRY:
Bruin team falls to Stanford, Oregon and WashingtonBy Jared
Hummel
Daily Bruin Contributor
The season came to an end for the UCLA women’s cross country
team Saturday afternoon on the Dell Urich Golf Course at the
University of Arizona. Needing a strong first or second place team
finish to secure an automatic bid to the national championships,
the squad placed fifth overall.
The defending national champions, the Stanford Cardinal,
dominated the meet for the third consecutive year with a team score
of 34. Four of the first five runners to cross the finish line
represented Stanford. Cardinal Julia Stamps finished first on the
team with a time of 17:13, second overall.
In addition to Stanford, UCLA placed behind the University of
Oregon, which finished with 78 points; Washington, which closed at
95 points; and host Arizona, with 127 points.
Arizona’s Amy Skieresz, the defending national champion and
three-time defending league champ, won her 13th consecutive meet
with a time of 16:59. Skieresz was favored to win the race and did
so in convincing fashion over Stanford’s Stamps, defeating her by
14 seconds.
UCLA senior Katherina Kechris took her familiar spot at the
front of all Bruin runners, placing 15th overall, with a time of
17:56. Behind Kechris for UCLA was true freshman Julie Ott, 24th;
redshirt freshman Kelly Cohn, 26th; and sophomore Christian Bowen,
37th.
The meet was a disappointing one for the Bruins but not
altogether unexpected. UCLA finished behind Stanford, Oregon and
Washington in all four of their previous match-ups this season.
A top-two finish would have won UCLA their first national
championship berth since 1988. However, because of the inexperience
of this young group accompanied by the loss of sophomore Kim
Mortensen’s leadership and front-running strength (Mortensen’s
season was cut short because of a back injury), the Bruins will
have to look to next year for a national championship run.