Tuesday, November 3, 1998
Women’s cross country team shocked after 8th place finish
RECAP: Bruins regroup from disheartening loss in Pac-10
championship
By Donald Morrison
Daily Bruin Contributor
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the No. 23
Bruins at the Pac-10 Conference Championships Saturday in Eugene,
Ore.
UCLA finished eighth with 167 points and failed to place any
individual in the Top 20. The Bruins faced five other Top 25 teams
and had to run in the rain on a wet, sloppy course where the wind
chill reached as low as 37 degrees.
The Bruins were shocked after the race, said head coach Eric
Peterson. UCLA figured it would finish as low as sixth if their
runners didn’t perform well  but other teams, like USC,
surprised the Bruins.
"(The race) was disastrous," Peterson said. "We went in with
pretty high hopes. We’ve been running so well. To have a complete
breakdown at the Pac-10 meet was shocking."
Also shocking for UCLA was the fact that the highest finisher in
the meet for the Bruins placed 25th. UCLA’s No. 1 runner, Christina
Bowen, was the last No. 1 runner on any team to cross the finish
line. She finished the 3.1 mile race in 18 minutes, 24 seconds.
Julie Ott came in two places after Bowen in 27th. Her time was
18:28. Kelly Cohn, UCLA’s No. 1 runner throughout the season,
finished in 30th place in 18:35.
Melinda George and Kara Barnard rounded out the scorers for the
Bruins at the meet. George finished 42nd in 18:59 while Barnard
placed 43rd in 19:01.
UCLA did not get off to a good start. Once the course narrowed,
UCLA was behind the front pack and was never able to catch up.
After the one-mile mark, no Bruin was among the top 20 runners.
Peterson said that this was uncharacteristic of a UCLA team that
has been running aggressively at the start of each race this
season.
"After (the course narrowed) it seemed impossible for us to pass
other runners," Peterson said. "The gun went off and the team
didn’t get out aggressively."
No. 2 Stanford wrapped up the team title with 53 points while
No. 12 Washington passed up No. 6 Arizona for second place with 74
points. The Wildcats finished third with 92 points.
No. 15 Arizona State, No. 16 Oregon, Washington State and USC
rounded out fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh places,
respectively.
Arizona’s Amy Skieresz, one of the best runners in the nation,
won the Pac-10 title, covering the course in 16:59. Julia Stamps of
Stanford placed second in 17:24 and Sally Glynn of Stanford placed
third.
While UCLA is likely to drop out of the Top 25, all is not lost
for the Bruins. They can still qualify for the NCAA Championships,
and they will get that chance in two weeks at the Western Regional
meet in Fresno.
The Bruins can earn an automatic spot by finishing in the top
two, or receive an at-large bid with a high placing. Peterson said
that the team is shocked but will bounce back.
"I’m very confident we’ll be able to move on," Peterson said.
"We don’t seem to dwell on things for too long. We have an
opportunity to redeem ourselves."
The Bruins, on the way home from the meet, agreed to get up at
6:15 in the morning and run 10 miles on Sunday.
"They did that on their own," Peterson said. "That’s a really
good sign."
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