Friday, October 18, 1996
CROSS COUNTRY:
Faster times essential if Bruins want to be contenders at
upcoming NCAAsBy Mark Jason Dittmer
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
If you’re a college varsity cross country runner, you’re used to
running each race alongside about 70 or 80 others. Maybe one time
you ran with a field of 125 or 150. Now, all of a sudden, you have
to run in the New York Marathon.
That’s what UCLA cross country runners face this weekend.
They’re travelling to Tuscon, Ariz. for the NCAA preview as one of
33 participating teams. With each team bringing seven runners, the
race will have approximately 230 participants. It looks like a
stampede.
"That’s a bigger field than most of our guys have ever run in,"
UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said.
"In high school, there’s some big fields but the guys on our
team were usually able to run in front. Here they’ll have to be
able to keep their concentration while falling behind a lot of
people."
And in all likelihood, they will fall behind a lot of people,
because the field at this meet is very good. It’s the NCAA preview,
and it features some of the best teams in the nation. On the men’s
side, there will be No. 2 Stanford, third-ranked Wisconsin, No. 4
Northern Arizona and the sixth-ranked Buffaloes of Colorado.
On the women’s side, No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Villanova and
sixth-ranked Arizona will be among 12 nationally-ranked teams in
the field.
If they can beat some of the ranked teams at the preview, the
Bruins will have a chance to establish both their men’s and women’s
teams as contenders to make the NCAAs  which will be held at
Tucson next month.
The UCLA women started the season ranked 24th nationally, but
they slipped out of the rankings after finishing third at the
Stanford Invitational.
To reestablish themselves, the Bruins need stronger performances
from the latter half of their lineup.
They cannot possibly ask for more from the top of their lineup,
because freshman Kim Mortensen is undefeated after three races and
no collegiate competitor has come within 30 seconds of her.
However, this week Mortensen may face her toughest challenge in
the form of University of Arizona sophomore Amy Skieresz. Skieresz
is also undefeated this year, and last weekend she beat Stanford’s
best runner, Mary Cobb, by 48 seconds. Mortensen beat Cobb in
Stanford by 38 seconds.
"Amy is really concerned about Kim," Arizona head coach Dave
Murray said. "Amy is never overconfident. Every person in the race
she worries about, even if some of those people never even come
close."
Mortensen looks to be the first to at least come close, or maybe
more.
After the meet in Stanford, Bruin head coach Eric Peterson
mentioned freshmen Jessica Corbin, Tina Bowen, Melinda George and
Kara Bernard as runners that needed to bring their times up.
"Those athletes are all capable of running around 18:00-18:10,"
he said. "If they do that, then we will be a team that will be
capable of qualifying for the national meets."
The foursome ran between 18:49 and 19:47 at Stanford.
SHAWN LAKSMI
UCLA’s Kim Mortensen hopes to run ahead of the field at the NCAA
Championships Preview.