By Mark J. Dittmer
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA men’s and women’s cross country teams will board planes
Friday morning, leaving Westwood behind. Their planes will set down
more than 300 miles north of here, and they will be ready for a
race.
But a look around upon their arrival should confirm what
everybody already knows – that the race for first place might be
over already.
You see, when the race is in Palo Alto, first place is usually
reserved for the Cardinal.
Of the 14 runners that ran for the Cardinal at the NCAA
Championships last year – in which Stanford’s men finished fifth
and their women finished ninth – 12 return to the team this
year.
Also adding to their firepower are runners returning from
redshirting last season. Co-captain Robert Reeder took last year
off, as did junior Matt Farley and senior Amanda White.
All have been in Stanford’s starting seven in years past, but
this year’s team might be talented enough to keep them out of the
starting lineup.
Meanwhile transfer Jessica Fry, an All-American in each of her
first two years running cross country at Alabama, joins the
Cardinal women.
"It’s unlikely that anybody’s going to top Stanford this year,"
Oregon women’s head coach Tom Heinonen said, "because they’ve got
more depth than any of the contending teams."
The Bruins are left to hope for a miracle this weekend.
"You can’t stop the other team’s runners," Bruin coach Bob
Larsen said. That becomes an especially big problem versus
Stanford.
What the Bruins can do is run the best race they can. But they
might be without two of their best runners.
Devin Elizondo may or may not have fulfilled whatever academic
obligations are keeping him ineligible. If he runs, Larsen hopes
Elizondo can come through with a solid time as the Bruins’ third
runner. His recovery from last spring’s stress fracture has been
moving along.
Larsen also doesn’t know whether Chris Lynch will run. Lynch has
been sick throughout the entire fall season so far, and has been
running about half of what the rest of the team runs in
workouts.
Meanwhile the Cardinal will probably be watching Northern
Arizona closer than they will watch the Bruins. Northern Arizona
finished last year’s NCAA Championship race in second place, and
began this season as the second-ranked team.
If the Bruins can contend for the national title this year,
they’ll find out this weekend. More likely, though, is a
third-place finish.