Friday, November 13, 1998
Bruins eye chance to qualify for upcoming championship
PREVIEW: UCLA’s Hauser finished eighth last year, hopes to
improve Saturday
By Donald Morrison
Daily Bruin Contributor
The time is now for UCLA senior men’s cross country runner Mark
Hauser.
Hauser, the Bruins’ No. 1 runner, gets the opportunity he’s been
waiting for all season long on Saturday  to qualify for the
NCAA Championships.
He’ll get that opportunity at the Western Regional Cross Country
Qualifying Meet at Woodward Park in Fresno, Calif. Hauser, who
finished in a surprising eighth place at last year’s regional meet,
has a strong possibility of qualifying for the NCAA Championships
since the NCAA increased the size of its field of runners.
There are now 38 individual qualifiers, four from each region
from non-qualifying teams and two at-large berths. If Hauser
finishes in the top seven again on the 10,000-meter (6.2-mile)
course, he will likely receive a berth in the NCAA
Championships.
"(Hauser’s) gotten even stronger this year," UCLA cross country
coach Bob Larsen said. "He had some excellent workouts before the
Pac-10 meet. He has to step up to 10,000 meters (from five miles),
but he ran that distance well last season at the regional meet.
It’s a very difficult field."
Hauser will get a chance to run against basically the same
teams, plus other regional schools like Portland, that he ran
against at the Pac-10 Championships where he finished fifth in the
five-mile race.
Larsen says he doesn’t necessarily have to finish in the top
five again to qualify for the NCAA Championships but could finish
that high, as his workouts have been going very well. Last week,
Hauser ran four one-mile repeats and, on his last mile, was clocked
at four minutes flat.
"I don’t think (Hauser) went all out on that last mile," Larsen
said. "It looked like he had a little bit more in reserve. I don’t
think he realized he went that fast. His workouts have been
super."
The challenge Hauser will get will be also be super. He’ll be
facing some of the nation’s toughest runners like Abdi Abdi-Rahman,
the Pac-10 cross country champion, from Arizona. He’ll also go up
against Bernard Lagat from Washington State (last year’s Pac-10
cross country champion) and the defending 10,000 meter outdoor NCAA
champion, Brent Hauser from Stanford.
"The team has pride in their performance and they didn’t run as
well as they would’ve liked to at the Pac-10’s," Larsen said.
"We’re hoping that the squad in general will have a good strong
race."
Paul Muite looks to have a big race for UCLA. The sophomore
broke the 25-minute barrier for five miles at the Pac-10 meet for
the first time, running 24:57. Larsen says he will be a good
10,000-meter runner and could surprise some people at the regional
race.
Joining Hauser and Muite will be Will Bernaldo and Mason Moore.
Matt Pitts, Bryan Green and Dan Brecht will also run for UCLA and
try to give the Bruins a lift in their toughest, and possibly last,
race of the season.
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