Top 10 finishes not high enough for cross country teams to move on to NCAA Championships
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
Oregon 1st 63
Stanford 2nd 65
Cal 3rd 78
Portland 4th 131
UCLA 8th 267
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
Washington 1st 73
Oregon 2nd 77
Stanford 3rd 86
Arizona 4th 90
UCLA 10th 312
By Manny Redruello
Nov. 15, 2010 1:10 a.m.
The UCLA cross country teams crossed the finish line for the last time this season. For some Bruin runners, it was the final instance crossing the finish line wearing true-blue and gold. For others, it was their first chance to race in a regional competition.
And although neither the men’s nor the women’s team achieved its goal of reaching the national championships, coach Forest Braden said that he was proud of his runners.
“Under the circumstances I was pleased and proud of them,” Braden said. “(It) shows something about where we’ve come, and the future is definitely bright.”
UCLA took eighth place in the men’s race and 10th in the women’s race at the NCAA West Regionals held in Springfield, Ore., on Saturday. The Bruins finished with a score of 267 points in the men’s division and 312 points in the women’s. Only the top two teams in each race ““ Washington and Oregon in the women’s race and Oregon and Stanford in the men’s race ““ earned automatic bids for the national championship races later this month.
The UCLA women’s cross country team traveled to Oregon with loads of enthusiasm but a definite lack of experience. Of the seven runners representing UCLA on Saturday, only two ““ redshirt senior Kelcie Wiemann and senior Shannon Murakami ““ were not freshmen.
Freshman Sierra Vega led the Bruins by finishing in 41st place with a time of 21:06.32. The next three Bruins to cross the finish line were Murakami (21:11.30), Wiemann (21:15.43) and freshman Melissa Skiba (21:20.61).
Although this lack of experience may have impacted the Bruins’ race this time around, these young runners will have a chance to develop over the next three years.
Freshman Pablo Rosales of the men’s team was also running in his first cross country regional and expected to be challenged over the weekend.
“It was definitely intimidating; it was a tough race and I knew it was going to be going in,” said Rosales. “But I had my team to back me up; they were there with me.”
While the men’s team had more experience than the women’s, its race was littered with miscues.
Redshirt junior Dylan Knight, one of the strongest runners on the team, was still unable to race after suffering an illness a few weeks ago. His twin brother, redshirt junior Spencer Knight, fell twice during the race and was once kneed in the back of the head. Spencer Knight finished 65th with a time of 31:17.43.
Redshirt junior Kent Morikawa led the Bruins by finishing in 23rd place (30:37.95), despite having to stop running after his shoe was pulled off at one point during the race.
Finishing between Morikawa and Knight were redshirt senior Jake Matthews, who finished 52nd (31:09.81), and sophomore Zach Torres, who finished 58th (31:14.61).
Torres said that because the course was run using spikes, all of the runners on the men’s team ended the race with bloody legs. Cross country isn’t about staying clean or having a race handed to you.
“A lot of things went wrong that we couldn’t have foreseen,” said Torres. “But that’s cross country, that’s why we run this sport ““ we like the competition.”
With a young group whose passion for the sport will continue to grow over the next several years, it’s true what coach Braden said ““ the future looks bright for the Bruins.
