Bowen only Bruin to advance to NCAA’s after West Regional

Women’s results 1. Stanford 58 2. Arizona
State 88 3. Arizona 126 8. UCLA 199 Men’s
results1. Stanford 58 2. Arizona 62 3. Cal Poly 114 7.
UCLA 167

By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

FRESNO, Calif. “”mdash; Both its men’s and women’s
teams fell well short of their goals, but the UCLA cross country
program left Fresno feeling good. Two, maybe three, of its
individuals appeared to have advanced from Saturday’s West
Regional in Fresno to the NCAA Championships.

Senior Christina Bowen of the women’s squad finished ninth
in her race and junior Bryan Green of the men’s side was 10th
in his, seemingly assuring them positions at the national finals in
Iowa on Nov. 20.

Furthermore, senior Paul Muite came in 14th in the men’s
contest to put himself on the bubble.

When the NCAA selection committee announced the 31-team
championship field on Monday, however, it turned out that only
Bowen would be moving on. With the Region’s third and
fourth-place men’s teams, Cal Poly and Oregon (the
nation’s No. 10 team) failing to earn at-large bids, Green
and Muite didn’t make the cut. In order to advance, they had
to be among the top four individuals on non-qualifying teams.

Nonetheless, those performances, as well as those of junior
Kelly Grimes and freshman Jon Rankin, who both set personal bests,
partially offset the disappointment the teams felt after finishing
seventh (men) and eighth (women) on Saturday.

“We’re going to have some representation at the NCAA
Championships,” head coach Eric Peterson said immediately
after the races. “I’m excited for Tina and Bryan and
possibly Paul, but that’s not why we run this
sport.”

Bowen knew going into the meet that unless she were to run very
fast, she would never race again in a UCLA uniform.

Before heading to the starting line, Bowen looked unusually
nervous. She paced around, face expressionless, sucking on a packet
of sugar gel. Disregarding the bolded letters on the little bag
reading, “Please do not litter,” Bowen carelessly
tossed her waste in a nearby gopher hole.

When later told she had littered, Bowen shrugged and said,
“All inhibitions are lost on race day.” (She did, by
the way, eventually pick up her garbage.)

Bowen was aggressive from the gun, traveling with the leaders in
the early going. At the mile she was in the top pack, led by
Arizona State’s Lisa Aguilera, which passed the checkpoint
between 5:24 and 5:27.

Bruin senior Katie Nuanes was in the top 20 as well, but the
rest of the Bruins were farther back.

From there, it was all hanging on for Bowen. Coming down the one
big hill on the course, the grimacing Bowen was in 12th place with
one mile left.

In the final half mile, Bowen made one final push. She kicked
down UC Irvine’s Karen Nilsson, who was also on a
non-qualifying team, to seal her trip to Iowa. Bowen completed the
6k in 20:44.

“I knew this could possibly be my last race,” Bowen
said. “I worked so hard over the years. I put it all on the
line today.”

Nuanes, in the meantime, finished 23rd at 21:14 and sophomore
Kelly Grimes was UCLA’s No. 3, placing 44th at 21:52.

Junior Bridie Hatch (68th, 22:29) and sophomore Melissa McBain
(69th, 22:29) were the other Bruin scorers.

Junior Alynda Franco (86th, 22:45) and senior Gina Donnelly
(106th, 23:04) also finished for UCLA.

Aguilera was the race’s individual winner (20:25), coming
in comfortably ahead of Stanford’s Lauren Fleshman
(20:33).

Stanford won the team race (58 points), followed by Arizona
State (88) and Arizona (126). UCLA, in eighth, had 199 points.

Upon hearing the results, the Bruins, who entered the race
hoping for a fifth-place finish, were dejected. Gathering their
belongings back at the starting line, there were few words
exchanged between the runners.

Bowen, too, was silent, appearing not to know what the proper
reaction was.

As the women started to get accustomed to their reality, the
men’s race went off.

Arizona was out especially quick, trying to utilize a strategy
that helped them upset Stanford at the Pac-10 Championships a year
ago. At the mile, which the leaders hit in 4:41, the Wildcats had
four in the top five. UCLA, meanwhile, had its pack of seven behind
at five minutes flat.

Arizona’s Steve Smith, David Lopez, Tom Prindiville and
Mike Cramer held the top four spots through two miles (9:41), with
Stanford’s frontrunners leading the chase group (9:46). The
Bruins (10:06) were keeping an even pace, although seniors Scott
Abbott and Mason Moore, who had both been injured recently, were
dropping off.

Over the next mile, Stanford bridged the gap, and soon there was
one continuous string of runners from the front of the race to the
back, instead of small, isolated bunches.

In the second half of the 10-kilometer race, Green, Muite and
Rankin made their way up the field, picking off runners one by
one.

Green and Muite tore down the final two miles, crossing the
finish at 31:13 (10th place) and 31:16 (14th), respectively.

Rankin was next at 24th (31:28).

Junior Justin Patananan (59th, 32:29) and Abbott (67th, 32:37)
rounded up the scoring five. Senior Andrew Wulf (72nd, 32:50) and
Mason Moore (98th, 34:02) filled in the final two spots for
UCLA.

Stanford’s Jonathan Riley, the Pac-10 champion, was the
individual winner in 30:40, holding off a late charge from Jason
Hartmann of Oregon (30:42).

Stanford, the nation’s No. 2 team, won the contest,
scoring 58 points. No. 12 Arizona was a close second with 62 points
and grabbed the last automatic spot to the NCAAs.

Unranked Cal Poly (114) upset No. 10 Arizona (122) for third.
The Bruins were a close seventh (167).

The Bruin men, unlike the women, were elated by their finish.
They didn’t do as well as a team as they had wished, but the
runners were excited enough by their efforts that they
couldn’t stop talking about the race.

“We’re just happy overall with how the season came
out for us,” Abbott said. “We had a good day. We did
our race plan and that’s all you can do. We’re the most
happy with how the top three did.”

The women, who cheered during the race, found themselves joining
the celebration.

“They have an ability to run patiently,” Bowen said
of the men’s team. “Our team doesn’t do that
often and it’s motivating to watch them.”

Following the two UCLA teams’ warm-downs, Peterson got
them to huddle around him. He announced that teams would continue
to practice on Monday.

“This isn’t a finishing point for us,” he
said, referring to future NCAA Championship appearances he believes
the team will make. “We did well at the top, but our 3-4-5
spots have to be stronger. We need to look at that.”