Maine meet key to UCLA’s championship aspirations

Friday, October 9, 1998

Maine meet key to UCLA’s championship aspirations

W.CROSS-COUNTRY Team hopes to gain experience against East Coast
rivals

By Donald Morrison

Daily Bruin Contributor

The No. 22 UCLA women’s cross country team wants to accomplish
two things this Saturday at the Seventh-Annual Murray Keating
Invitational in Orono, Maine. Number one: expose the team to
competition outside of the western region. Number two: finish high
in the meet.

While the goals for the meet seem simple, there is a deeper
reason for them – to boost the team’s strength to impress the NCAA
selection committee. The committee will meet in November and choose
13 at-large teams, along with 18 automatic qualifiers, to compete
at the NCAA Championships, at Kansas University. UCLA hopes that an
impressive outing at Murray Keating will help the Bruins qualify
for the Championships.

‘It’s an important meet,’ UCLA head women’s cross-country coach
Eric Peterson said.

‘Hopefully, we will have some wins against teams outside our
region who have automatically qualified or placed high in their
region. What that does is put us in front of them during the
selection process.’

Boston College will give the Bruins the biggest challenge. The
Golden Eagles, who finished ninth at last year’s NCAA
Championships, are not ranked in the Top 25, but return Angela
Graham and Shannon Smith, who finished third and 17th respectively
at the NCAA Championships last year.

Other New England foes that UCLA will take on include the host
school, Maine, along with Holy Cross, New Hampshire, Central
Connecticut and Vermont.

UCLA looks to become the third Pac-10 school to win the invite.
Arizona won in 1993 and Stanford won in 1996. To win the meet, the
Bruins will look to sophomore Kelly Cohn to lead the way. Cohn,
after being voted the most improved cross-country runner in 1997,
established herself as the team’s No. 1 runner this year, despite
suffering a stress fracture in her leg last December that prevented
her from running for six months.

‘(Cohn) has provided some consistency up front for us when we
really needed it,’ Peterson said. ‘She’s one of our most dedicated
athletes.’ Cohn will try to improve on her season-best time of 17
minutes, 48 seconds over 3.1 miles.

Julie Ott, Christina Bowen and freshman Elaine Canchola will
battle for the team’s No. 2 spot. Bowen and Ott have taken turns
finishing in the No. 2 position this year. Ott finished second on
the team at the Roy Griak Invite in Minnesota in September.

Freshman Elaine Canchola is currently the team’s No. 3 runner
and is quickly improving. She won the Biola Invite last Saturday in
18:51. She ran 18:15 at the Roy Griak Invite. Peterson is impressed
with her and says she is one of the most competitive athletes on
the team.

‘This is the strongest team nationally we’ve had since I’ve been
here,’ Peterson said. ‘The valuable experience that these athletes
have had is paying off.’

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