Notebook

Thursday, October 23, 1997

Notebook

The UCLA men’s cross country team retained its No. 22 ranking in
the nation this week after their top seven runners took the weekend
off from racing. The Bruins have been ranked in the top 25 of the
Martin Surfacing Poll all four times that it has been released this
year.

The Pacific-10 Conference has five other schools currently
ranked in the top 25. Stanford held on to its No. 1 ranking this
week with 10 of 16 first-place votes.Oregon is No. 5 for the second
consecutive week and Washington State made the jump from No. 12 to
No. 10. Arizona moved up to No. 14 and Washington fell from No. 17
to No. 18 this week.

* * *

Practice is going well for the Bruins. UCLA is getting ready to
compete in the Pac-10 Championships on Nov. 1 at Stanford. UCLA’s
practices consist of long runs and interval or speed workouts. UCLA
head coach Bob Larsen says the team feels good about its
workouts.

"They’re in high spirits," Larsen said. "It’s hard to maintain
an up-beat feeling when you’re working real hard because you’re
tired, but (the team) is able to do that. A lot of it is pushing
each other and encouraging each other."

The top seven runners for UCLA did not compete last Saturday and
will not this weekend. However, the Bruin runners ran five miles on
their day off.

"Each week that we haven’t been racing they’ve been doing (the
tempo run) on Saturdays," Larsen said. "They’ve been gradually
improving their fitness. The other days are mixtures of strong and
steady or medium and easy."

* * *

Mebrahtom Keflezighi, one of the favorites to win the Pac-10
Championship, has been practicing well the past two weeks. The
tendinitis in his knee is holding up, says Larsen. Trainers work
with Keflezighi closely to make sure the knee is not bothering him.
Larsen did add that Keflezighi’s knee is sore sometimes but that it
does not hinder practices.

"The volume and intensity as well as quality of (Keflezighi’s)
workouts are high," Larsen said. "He’s recovering well from tough
workouts. His strength is really starting to appear more
significantly than where he was earlier in the year."

Keflezighi, Larsen added, is not 100 percent yet but has four
and a half weeks to get ready for the NCAA Championships on Nov.
24.

* * *

An achilles heel can ruin an athlete’s chance of success. For
Devin Elizondo, this statement rings true. Elizondo has been
hampered by achilles tendinitis lately. Elizondo cut back on
training this week and has substituted running workouts with
swimming on days when his achilles is bothering him. Larsen hopes
that he will be able to practice hard later in the week.

"He hasn’t been able to do the work the other guys have done,"
Larsen said. "He’s a very good athlete and if he goes through a
season uninjured I could see him being a top-10 runner in the
Pac-10."

Compiled by Donald Morrison, Daily Bruin contributor.