Penn State Invitational 1. UCLA 38 2.
Central Michigan 48 3. Penn State 61
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With a win on Saturday at the Penn State Invitational, the UCLA
women’s cross country team kept itself in contention for an
at-large bid to the NCAA Championships.
Just two weeks ago, the Bruins had a disastrous race at the Roy
Griak Invitational in Minnesota, where they finished 18th of 29
squads and temporarily slipped off the bubble.
“Obviously, I’m excited,” Bruin head coach
Eric Peterson said following his team’s performance at Penn
State. “Plain and simple, we went to win the meet.
“The team was certainly aware of the position we were
in.”
The Bruins, paced by seniors Tina Bowen and Katie Nuanes, scored
38 points to beat Central Michigan (48 points), host Penn State
(61), Navy (74) and St. Francis (145).
In the early stages of the race, the situation didn’t look
good for UCLA, which failed to press on the course’s fast
opening mile.
As the lead pack ““ consisting of Bowen, Nuanes,
Navy’s Melissa Foon and Penn State’s Susanne Heyer
““ started to pull away after 800 meters, the remaining Bruins
found themselves well behind the pack of Central Michigan
runners.
The leaders hit the first mile at 5:27, while Central
Michigan’s bunch crossed the checkpoint at 5:40. The crowd of
Bruins trailed at 5:46.
“That was a mistake we made,” Peterson said.
“We shouldn’t have spotted them six seconds.”
Over the remainder of the 6-kilometer circuit, however, UCLA was
able to overcome its deficit.
Sophomore Kelly Grimes moved up to finish seventh among the 69
runners, covering the hilly course in 22:12.1. Fellow sophomore
Melissa McBain came in shortly after at 22:17.7 to place tenth.
Senior Gina Donnelly (16th, 22:34.0) was the Bruins’ final
scorer.
Up ahead, Bowen (21:27.3) and Nuanes (21:28.9) kept their
positions among the leaders, finishing second and third,
respectively.
Foon won the contest in 21:23.4.
“It was great,” Bowen said. “The team
performed awesome. We travelled well, which is something we
weren’t sure we could do after Minnesota.”
Bowen added that the team’s performance the week before at
Stanford restored much of the team’s confidence. There, the
Bruins finished fifth, losing only to teams ranked 13th or higher
in the country.
“We had just run terrible at Minnesota and there was a
considerable amount of pressure,” Bowen said. “Quite
honestly, we were scared.
“For some teams, if you run poorly once, it could be the
season. What was so cool about Stanford was that we were able to
come back. It showed confidence.”
The Bruins will rest next weekend before competing at the
Fullerton Invitational on Oct. 20.
The Pac-10 Championships are on Oct. 28 and the Western
Regionals will be on Nov. 11.