Friday, October 2, 1998
UCLA ready to sprint for win after lagging in past meet
RECAP: Week-long workouts buoy teams’ hopes to burn out weekend
competition
By Donald Morrison
Daily Bruin Contributor
After competing in the one of the nation’s most prestigious
meets last weekend, the men’s and women’s cross country teams will
stay in Southern California on Saturday.
The men’s team will send its "B" team to the Biola Invitational
in La Mirada and the No. 20 women’s squad will send its top runners
to the same meet.
Last weekend, at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis,
Minn., the women’s team tied for fourth place, and the men’s team
finished 14th.
The Roy Griak Invite is where some of the nation’s top teams
compete every year on the men’s and women’s sides.
The Providence team, ranked third in the nation on the women’s
side and sixth on the men’s side, captured victory in both
races.
Kelly Cohn led the way for the Bruins, placing 13th out of the
150 runners with a time of 17 minutes, 48 seconds in the 5,000
meter race.
Julie Ott finished 20th in 18:01 while freshman Elaine Canchola
placed 34th in 18:15.
UCLA’s women’s squad tied with Minnesota for fourth place with
148 points. Pac-10 foe, Oregon, placed third.
On the men’s side, senior Mark Hauser placed 23rd on the 8,000
meter course in 25:22. Paul Muite placed 53rd in 25:58, and Will
Bernaldo finished right behind Muite in 26:02.
"I think we ran OK, but I didn’t think we ran great," UCLA men’s
cross country coach Bob Larsen said. "A number of factors came into
play. A couple guys were under the weather. Muite did a great job
moving up during the race to get 53rd."
The Bruins hope that their solid workouts this past week will
help them at Biola. The men will send Scott Abbot, Ryan Larson,
Justin Patananan, Matt Pitts, Adrian Ramirez and Andrew Wulf.
Hauser, Muite, Bernaldo and Dan Brecht, members of UCLA’s top
seven, will not compete this weekend as they prepare for the Murray
Keating Invitational in Maine.
"Our workouts have been going so well," Larsen said. "We feel we
can beat some of the higher ranked teams we face."
The women hope to prove that they belong in the top 20 by
carrying through a strong performance at Biola this weekend without
the help of top runner Kelly Cohn, who will train through the
weekend.
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© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board