Pac-10 Championship 1. Stanford 51 2. ASU 67 3.
Arizona 79 4. UCLA 134
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Although the Bruins didn’t run a particularly poor race,
their performance Saturday at the Pac-10 Championships all but
eliminated them from the pool of teams contending for an at-large
bid to the NCAA Finals.
Finishing sixth out of the nine teams present at Lincoln Park in
Seattle, Wash., the UCLA women’s cross country squad flew
back to Los Angeles last weekend knowing its last race would likely
be the West Regionals on Nov. 11.
“It was a very average race for our team,” said
senior captain Christina Bowen. “No one ran incredible and no
one ran terrible.”
And that wasn’t enough.
“We really needed to upset a team to get on the
bubble,” said head coach Eric Peterson, referring to the four
schools in the field that are ranked in the top eight
nationally.
The race went out quickly, as defending individual champion Erin
Sullivan of Stanford immediately went to the front.
Bowen and fellow Bruin senior Katie Nuanes, who were a few
strides behind the lead pack, went through the first mile at
5:06.
Junior Bridie Hatch trailed at 5:12 and the rest of UCLA’s
team was at 5:16.
Soon after, Arizona, the No. 8 team in the country, made its
move. Prior to the race, Peterson told his team to key in on the
Wildcats, but the Bruins couldn’t respond.
“I was running as hard as I could,” Hatch said.
“Things were just happening around me and I couldn’t
react.”
The field started to string out and UCLA never made up the
ground.
Tara Chaplin of Arizona, who took the lead when Sullivan dropped
out at the 2,000-meter mark, won the individual contest in
20:10.67.
Arizona State’s Lisa Aguilera completed the 4K a little
more than nine seconds later, coming in at 20:19.95 for second.
Stanford’s Lauren Fleshman was third in 20:34.84.
Nuanes, the Bruins’ top finisher, hit the line in
21:11.23, claiming 12th place.
Bowen, who had been UCLA’s No. 1 runner all season, was
14th (21:15.40). She entered the race nursing a slight cold and
said afterwards that she was weakened by it.
“The whole week, I knew I was about to get sick and I did
everything I could not to,” she said, her voice sounding
raspy. “It’s frustrating after you work so hard all
year.
“But I was happy I was able to pull through. I
couldn’t have run any faster on this day.”
Sophomore Kelly Grimes was third on the team, running what
Peterson called “the best cross country race of her
life.” She was 31st in 22:01.99.
Hatch (38th, 22:25.46) and sophomore Melissa McBain (39th,
22:30.10) were the other two Bruin scorers.
UCLA’s sixth and seventh runners were senior Gina Donnelly
(48th, 22:56.07) and sophomore Julia Barbour (49th, 22:59.21).
No. 2 Stanford won its fifth straight conference title with a
total of 51 points. No. 4 Arizona State (67), Arizona (79) and No.
6 Washington (83) were next.
The Bruins, meanwhile, tallied 134 points, allowing Washington
State (124) to sneak by them.
With only two schools from the West Regionals automatically
going to the NCAAs and UCLA’s chances for an at-large bid
minimal, the Bruins are well aware of the position they are in.
The team, nonetheless, hasn’t given up.
“We recognize our chance for nationals isn’t as good
as it was before,” Bowen said. “But we still have hope.
You can’t run without hope. For the next two weeks, everyone
is going to run their butts off.”
“I think we should go into the race looking as if
we’re never going to run again,” Hatch added.
“We’re going to run with as much emotion and heart as
we have. We have nothing to lose.”