Bruins take second place at Stanford Invitational

Monday, September 29, 1997

Bruins take second place at Stanford Invitational

Team pulls strong performance to challenge Cardinals

By Donald Morrison

Daily Bruin Contributor

The men’s cross-country team knew that beating Stanford, the
defending national champion, would be a difficult task Saturday
afternoon at the Stanford Invitational. The Cardinals are again the
nation’s elite team and proved it by having a great meet and
winning their own invitational with only 22 points.

The Bruins also had a great meet, finishing in a solid second
place with 91 points. UCLA beat a strong BYU team and did it by
placing five runners ahead of the Cougars’ fourth and fifth men.
BYU did manage to finish third with 130 points, and a good Cal Poly
SLO team finished fourth with 131 points.

The team effort was led by Mebrahtom Keflezighi. Keflezighi,
running with slight tendinitis in his left knee, managed to win his
second straight Stanford Invitational title, and he did it in
exciting fashion.

Keflezighi and Nathan Nutter of Stanford battled for the top
position throughout most of the 8,000-meter race. It wasn’t until
the very end of the race that Keflezighi pulled far enough away
from Nutter to hang on and win the race. His time over the
8,000-meter course was clocked at 24:20, just one second ahead of
Nutter.

"(Keflezighi) had a tough time and a tough race especially with
tendinitis," coach Bob Larsen said. "He had a good duel at the end
of the race with Nutter. (Keflezighi) worked hard and ran an
intelligent race. It was back and forth between the leaders, and
(Keflezighi) proved to be stronger at the end. He had to be smart
to beat Nutter, who was ready to win."

Keflezighi was not the only Bruin to have a good race. Mark
Hauser ran a personal best time at Stanford’s home course with a
24:57 performance that was good enough to capture sixth place.

"Hauser ran a very competitive race," Larsen said. "It was an
excellent time for him. He came back and finished strong. For him
to finish in sixth was great."

Devin Elizondo also turned in a solid performance for UCLA.
Elizondo finished in 15th place with a time of 25:22. Dan Brecht
and Matt Olin also ran personal best times at Stanford, running
26:05 and 26:06, respectively. Brecht and Olin’s finishes were good
enough for 36th and 38th places.

"We kept track of BYU and did well against them," Larsen said.
"I reassured the guys that we were okay with the team scores. I was
pleased that (Olin) and (Brecht) caught some BYU runners late in
the race."

Arguably, the most improved performance for UCLA was turned in
by their sixth runner, Matt Pitts. Pitts finished the race in 41st
place with a time of 26:09. This was a 101- place improvement from
his 142nd- place finish at last year’s invitational.

"We were really pleased with our performance," Larsen said.
"We’re excited about the team race and (Keflezighi’s) win. We knew
how tough Stanford is. Several guys ran extremely well.
(Keflezighi) showed his toughness. (Pitts) had his best race ever
by far, and (Olin) and (Brecht) had good solid times."