By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Last year when the Bruins went to the Cal State Fullerton
Invitational, the competition was so that weak women’s cross
country coach Eric Peterson divided the Bruins into two teams
““ the gray team and the white team ““ and had his own
intersquad competition during the meet.
The gray team won.
So did the Bruins.
“I wanted to keep our kids motivated about the
competition,” Peterson said. “We knew going in that
meet that our team was the strongest.”
But this year UCLA won’t need any extra motivation in the
Fullerton Invitational on Sept. 2. It’s not that the
competition has grown any stronger, but the Bruins themselves, with
only two top runners from last year, appear to be in the midst of a
rebuilding season.
That’s why a meet like the Fullerton Invitational is a
good season opener.
“The two first dates on our schedule are preseason meets.
We intentionally try to find some lower-tier meets,” Peterson
said.
As outlined by Peterson, the seventh-year women’s head
coach and a first-year men’s head coach, the goals are
simple. First ““ get the team off to a good start. Second
““ evaluate some of the lower-key athletes.
“I’m certainly hopeful that we will get off to a
start with two victories,” Peterson said, referring to both
teams, “but I’m more concerned about developing my
teams at this point.”
Although the women’s cross country team only has two
returners in senior Katie Nuanes and junior Alynda Franco, the team
also has two experienced redshirts, senior Christina Bowen and
junior Julie Ott.
On the men’s side there is more experience, with six
runners returning from last year’s squad. Like the women, the
men ran well at Fullerton last year, placing second at the
Invitational.
“We have a good team. We’re gonna try to improve
this year,” senior Paul Muite said.
Last year wasn’t a good one for the men, who finished
seventh out of eight teams at Pac-10 championships. They did not
continue to NCAA Championships.
Despite their poor finish, the men are optimistic about their
experience. Including Muite, the team has three seniors and three
juniors.
“We’re a lot closer (to each other) and we’ve
been here a longer time,” Muite said. “We’ve
experienced bad seasons, and we know what it takes to do
better.”
Team captain and senior Scott Abbott pointed out that before
team practice started last week the men had been running
individually, about 50 to 80 miles a week.
“That shows a lot of dedication. That shows we want
it,” Abbott said. “We’re not happy with the
results we’ve had in the past.”
So for this 2000 season, in which both the women and men want to
prove themselves in the collegiate cross country world, the
Fullerton Invitational is a good place to start.