Young team cleans up at Pomona invite

Tuesday, October 29, 1996

CROSS COUNTRY:

Bruins win despite not sending top runners, pace themselves for
championshipsBy Vytas Mazeika

Daily Bruin Contributor

Top runners Kim Mortensen and Githa Hampson took the weekend off
to train for the upcoming Pacific 10 championships, as the women’s
cross country head coach Eric Peterson sent a young team to the
Pomona Invite to gain some experience.

"The gamble we ran in racing a week in advance (of the Pac-10)
paid off," Peterson said. "We got everything we wanted out of this
meet."

The women’s cross country team sent only their No. 3 through No.
7 runners. In the end, the results could not have been any more
satisfying.

UCLA won their second meet by scoring a total of only 20 points.
UCSB came in second with 62 points and Cal State Fullerton rounded
out the top three with 84 points.

The only thing the women did not do this weekend was win the
individual race. That honor belonged to JoJo Yaba from UC Irvine
­ an unattached runner who was an NCAA qualifier last year
­ who came in with a time of 17:17.

Katherina Kechris led the Bruins with a fifth-place finish
(17:38). Yet, the finish is not what satisfied Peterson.

UCLA’s top four qualifiers finished only six seconds apart.
Melinda George came in sixth place (17:39), one second behind
Kechris. "It was the best cross-country race of Melinda’s short
career," Peterson said.

And to think that the night before the invite her knee locked up
and George feared she could not run.

To top it all off, Jessica Corbin placed seventh (17:40) ­
one second behind George. Christina Bowen ended up eighth (17:45)
and Kara Bernard, running in only her second race of the year,
clinched victory by scoring a 10th-place finish (18:02).

"They did such a good job," UCLA No. 1 runner Kim Mortensen
said. "It was neat to see that they were so happy."

The experience gained from Saturday’s domination can only carry
over to a good showing at next week’s Pac-10 championships in Palo
Alto.

"We have a good chance to finish in the top three," Peterson
said.

By running together as a pack, the women’s team provided a
compelling case for being reinstated into the top 25. During the
beginning of the year, the team was ranked 24th in the nation, but
the young runners had problems adjusting to the collegiate level.
But it seems they began to turn their season around.

Now one thing is for sure. All of the Pac-10 can feel the Bruins
getting stronger.

Scott Quintard/ASUCLA Photography

Bruin top runner Kim Mortensen did not race in the Pomona Invite
to train for next week’s Pac-10 championships.