UCLA Sports Info Carolyn Shea Â
UCLA Sports Info Bryan Green
By Michael Sneag
Daily Bruin Contributor
Things never work out exactly the way they are supposed to, but
having your top runner lose her shoe after 800 meters is definitely
not what head coach Eric Peterson envisioned in his race plan.
However, freshman Alejandra Barrientos was able to fight through
the loss and, with the support of her teammates, help her team
finish 21st at the NCAA Championships in Greenville, South
Carolina.
Barrientos’ fight with her shoe started very early on as
someone stepped on her heel, causing it to become dislodged. After
trying to run with it for about 800 meters, she finally just kicked
it off and was forced to run with only one shoe for the rest of the
race.
“You really have to hand it to her,” Peterson said.
“Most people would have handled the situation very
negatively, especially in such a big race. She was able to maintain
her focus in some very difficult conditions and lead the team up
until the very end when Carolyn passed her at the line.”
Freshman Carolyn Shea, who has consistently improved throughout
the season, ended up being the top Bruin finisher in 96th place
with a time of 22:20.
“It is very exciting finishing first because I really
wasn’t expecting it at all,” Shea said. “The last
1,000 meters was all downhill, and I really used that to pass a lot
of people. It didn’t really sink in until about 30 minutes
later when my parents came up and talked to me about it. Right now
I am just letting it all soak in and enjoying the
feeling.”
She was followed closely by Barrientos (97th, 22:21), and
sophomores Valerie Flores (99th, 22:22), and Lena Nilsson (105th,
22:26) and junior Elaine Canchola (142nd, 22:50). The top five
runners had a very respectable 30-second spread ““ an
indication of how well the team ran as a group.
“I am pleased with the way they ran,” Peterson said.
“This is our best team effort of the season. We had some
really good team running and that shows in our top runners
finishing so closely at the end. Finishing 21st is a good benchmark
for the program, and we are expecting to improve next
year.”
Freshman Lori Mann (58th, 22:56) and sophomore Tiffany Burgess
(195th, 23:41) were the other two Bruins to finish, but only the
top five from each team are counted.
On the men’s side, senior Bryan Green was running as an
individual, and finished in 84th place, with a time of 30:49.
“I felt pretty good about the race, but I would have liked
to finish a little higher, Green said. “But it was by far the
best race I have run since getting sick. I ran really strong over
the last part of the race, and I made a nice improvement over the
Pre-National meet a month ago.”
In the team competitions, BYU was the women’s winner with
62 points, followed by N.C. State with 148 points. The individual
winner was Tara Chaplin of Arizona in a time of 20:24 for the
6,000-meter course.
On the men’s side, Colorado edged Stanford for the team
title by the slimmest of margins, 91 to 90. East Michigan’s
Boaz Chboiywo was the individual winner in a time of 28:47 on the
10,000 meter course.