UCLA Sports Information Mason Moore
performed well at the Stanford Invitational, helping the Bruins
finish third.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Mason Moore is back.
Moore, a fifth-year senior on the UCLA cross country team, had
trained lightly over the summer to recover from his draining spring
track campaign. And in this season’s early race, his lack of
preparation showed, as he ran several paces behind where he was
expected to be.
But racing at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday, Moore
regained his old form, coming in 16th out of 139 runners.
Coupled with junior Bryan Green’s seventh-place run,
Moore’s performance catapulted the Bruins to a third-place
finish in a field of 18 teams.
Host Stanford, ranked second in the country, won the race with
28 points. UC Santa Barbara and UCLA trailed with 118 and 142
points, respectively.
“It feels good to be back,” Moore said.
“I’m starting to come into myself.”
At the start of the race, the Bruins found themselves in some
trouble, as the number of runners on the course prevented them from
staying in a pack.
“We didn’t get into our plan,” said senior
team captain Scott Abbott. “Maybe it cost us the race to
Santa Barbara.”
The Bruins, however, kept their poise and ran strongly over the
8-kilometer course, enabling them to beat 1999 NCAA Championship
qualifiers Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Southern Utah.
Green hit the finish line at 25:26, while Moore ran through at
25:49.
Senior Paul Muite (30th, 26:09), true freshman Jon Rankin (44th,
26:30) and junior Justin Patananan (49th, 26:34) were next.
Junior Andrew Wulf (50th, 26:35), Abbott (71st, 27:05), and
sophomore Phil Young (78th, 27:18) were the other UCLA
finishers.
Stanford All-American senior Jonathan Riley won the individual
contest in 24:44, leading a 1-2-3 sweep by the Cardinals.
“Our plan fell apart but we still ran well,” Abbott
said. “It’s a huge confidence boost.”
“Everyone’s pretty pleased,” Green added.
“It was a little disappointing to lose to Santa Barbara,
though.”
“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;
The UCLA women’s team, meanwhile, recovered from their
catastrophic outing the previous week at the Roy Griak Invitational
by placing sixth among the 21 squads at Stanford.
The Bruins finished behind five nationally ranked teams ““
including the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 squads ““ and avenged an early
season loss to No. 20 UC Irvine.
“We’re really happy,” said sophomore Kelly
Grimes. “We performed very well as a team.”
Unlike the UCLA men, the women were able to keep contact with
each other in the early going.
Over the second half of the hilly 5,000-meter course, seniors
Tina Bowen and Katie Nuanes moved up strongly. Bowen came in 14th
at 18:16 and Nuanes was 24th at 18:26.
Junior Bridie Hatch (40th, 18:43), freshman Valerie Flores
(52nd, 19:03) and Grimes (57th, 19:05) were the other Bruin
scorers.
Senior Gina Donnelly (72nd, 19:21), sophomore Julie Barbour
(81st, 19:26), sophomore Melissa McBain (96th, 19:39), freshman
Michelle Barrack (118th, 20:05) and freshman Jessica Marr (139th,
20:36) were the remaining UCLA finishers.
Stanford, the country’s No. 1 team, won the meet
comfortably with a tally of 61 points. No. 17 Washington was second
with 91 points.
No. 3 Kansas State, No. 2 Wisconsin (which rested defending
national champion Erica Palmer) and No. 13 Arkansas rounded out the
top five.