By Michael Sneag
Daily Bruin Contributor
Freshman Alejandra Barrientos has quickly established herself as
the leader of the No. 18-ranked women’s cross country team.
As she has done in every other race this season, she was the top
Bruin finisher at this weekend’s NCAA preview meet in
Greenville, S.C.
Her performance helped the team to a seventh-place finish out of
the 34 teams in their seeded division, and showed that the Bruins
are ready to compete on a national level. The meet also helped the
team’s chances for an at-large bid for the NCAA Championships
on Nov. 19 to be held on the same course.
Barrientos finished in 36th place overall with a time of 22:09
for the 6,000-meter course, overcoming breathing problems caused by
an illness that caused her to miss the last 10 days worth of team
workouts.
Veteran leadership was provided by junior Elaine Canchola, who
was right behind Barrientos in 37th place at 22:10, giving her
support and guidance in the team’s most important race to
date.
“The plan was to stick with whoever was leading for the
first 5,000 and see what I had left,” Barrientos said.
“I stayed with Elaine for pretty much the whole race, and
then I was able to pull away. But Elaine was a great help. She is
such a steady runner, and it was a really big help in keeping a
consistent pace.”
Freshman Carolyn Shea also ran an impressive race, placing 53rd
with a time of 22:28. Sophomore Valerie Flores (71st, 22:40)
was next, followed by freshmen Lori Mann (74th, 22:43) and Carmen
Winant (109th, 23:07). Only the top five finishers from each team
count in the team scoring.
The overall race winner was Molly Austin of Colorado in a time
of 20:48, while Georgetown easily won the team title with a total
of 48 points.
The lone entry from the men’s team was senior Bryan Green,
who ran in the men’s invitational race and placed 15th
overall with a time of 25:53. This was the first meet for Green in
two weeks, who is still recovering from a chest infection that has
slowed the momentum of his season. But Green was still able to find
positives in the experience.
“In the last three weeks I have done one workout. So when
you put it into perspective I am not really upset, but it is still
a little frustrating to have that as the best I can
expect.”