Flores blossoms as key distance runner for UCLA

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Freshman Valerie
Flores placed second and third in the Bruins’ first
two meets this year.

By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Contributor

UCLA women’s cross country head coach Eric Peterson has
seen Valerie Flores develop over the years.

Peterson first saw her as a San Pedro High School sophomore
running at the Los Angeles City Section track championships.

Three years later, Peterson is now her coach.

“She’s the most improved runner in the area over the
last couple of years,” Peterson said of the Bruin freshman.
“She was always a talented kid. She just needed the
opportunity.”

Competing in the Los Angeles City Section ““ where distance
running times lag far behind those from the nearby Southern Section
““ Flores went largely unnoticed until her senior season
despite having performed well from the start.

As a high school freshman in 1996, she won her first cross
country race coming off just three weeks of training. By the end of
the season, she was the fifth best runner in the city and earned a
berth in the California state championships.

“I was so excited to qualify,” she said.

The state meet, however, turned out to be disastrous. Running
with a hip flexor, Flores finished second-to-last and remained
unknown.

“It was my saddest race ever,” she recalled.
“My parents were there, trying to get me to stop.”

That, however, didn’t deter her interest in the sport.

“I really liked the success,” Flores said.
“Being the first runner from San Pedro to go to state gave me
a lot of satisfaction.”

The following year, she qualified for the state meet again, but
once more, a hip injury prevented her from placing high.

Flores’ breakthrough came when she was a junior and had a
new coach, Bruce Thomson.

Between her sophomore and junior years, Flores trained for the
first time during the summer. In the fall, she won the city cross
country title and was sixth in the state.

Finally, for the first time, she was being noticed.

Meanwhile, Thomson began talking to Peterson about Flores.
Thomson, a UCLA alum, was a regular attendant at Bruin track meets
and was in contact with the coaches.

“He just told me about Val and how she dreamed of going to
UCLA her whole life,” Peterson said. “It seemed like a
natural fit for her.”

With Peterson keeping an eye on her, Flores had a stellar 1999
track season, winning both the 1600- and 3200-meter races at the
city finals.

In the summer before her senior year of high school, Flores sat
down with Thomson and set some goals. They talked about the state
meet, the Footlocker Western Regional race and even the possibility
of qualifying for the national championships.

Flores went to Peterson’s summer running camp in Mammoth
and entered the 1999 cross country season fit.

At midseason, she got some encouragement by placing third at the
prestigious Mt. SAC Invitational, which established her as a
contender for the state crown.

By this time, Peterson was seriously recruiting her.

“I’ve always wanted to go to UCLA ever since the
first time I went there,” Flores said. “My parents
always wanted me to go there.”

Had she not been not been an athlete, Flores still may have
wound up a Bruin.

Academically, she was ranked 19th in her class with a 3.9 GPA.
She was the sports editor of her school newspaper, worked with
campus radio, packed in 300 hours of community service and was
involved in a church group and the Youth & Government club.

Flores committed to UCLA as soon as she could, giving the school
her letter of intent during the November early-signing period.

Other schools ““ such as Cal and UC Irvine ““ had
offered her scholarships as well, but having joined a game in which
they were already at a disadvantage, they lost.

But even though she had already signed, Flores wasn’t done
with her high school running career yet.

She repeated as the city cross country champion but fell short
of her goals at the state meet. Hampered by the flu, Flores
finished fifth.

“I knew I wasn’t going to win,” Flores said of
her race at the state meet. “I felt bad because everyone had
expectations.”

At the Footlocker West Regionals the following week, where the
top eight finishers would go on to national finals, Flores entered
the race without being given much of a chance.

Doug Speck, the prep editor of California Track & Running
News, had compiled a list of 30 runners who could possibly advance
to the championships in Florida. He left Flores’ name off
completely.

“I had to prove to myself that I belonged among the best
in the state,” Flores said.

That day, Flores was the best in the state. Coming in fifth in
the regional race, Flores was the first Californian to cross the
finish line.

A week later, she was 19th at the national meet.

Suddenly, Peterson looked like a genius.

This year, Flores has already been a significant contributor to
the Bruin squad. In the team’s first two meets, she was the
second and third UCLA finisher.

When the season is over, Peterson is hoping to enter Flores in
the USATF Junior Cross Country championships, where she can earn a
berth in the world finals.

The key for Flores, Peterson said, is to be patient.

“Since she’s from the city, she lacks experience at
a high level,” he said. “It’s been more of a
detriment to her development than anything. She was winning races
so easily there.

“She’s going to have to learn to deal with not
running as well as she can and being beat,” he added.
“But last year at Footlocker, she proved she was resilient.
She should be able to do it.”