Monday, November 4, 1996
CROSS COUNTRY:
Bruins train for upcoming NCAA championships in ArizonaBy Vytas
Mazeika
Daily Bruin Contributor
PALO ALTO, Calif. — If you would have told the men’s and
women’s cross country teams the results of the Pac-10 championships
before the meet, they would have been likely to tell you the same
thing that women’s cross country coach Eric Petersen said
afterward.
"I’ll take it."
The person who was most pleased with the results this Saturday
was the men’s top-ranked runner Mebrahtom Keflezighi.
He won the title.
In the individual race, Keflezighi faced a tough challenge in
Karl Keska of Oregon, who was undefeated prior to this Saturday.
Yet, Keflezighi won running away by a convincing 10 seconds.
The key point in the race took place just after the 3-mile mark
at Stanford’s tough hill-laden course. With Keska breathing hard,
Keflezighi decided to push the pace right after a bridge and into a
tough hill.
"He was breathing hard. I decided I had to make my move right
now," Keflezighi said. "I did and it paid off."
Keflezighi was looking forward all week to dethroning the Pac-10
champion, and he did so in record time. With a finish of 19:45,
Keflezighi set a new course record by an astonishing 19 seconds,
showing his grit and competitiveness.
"We’re the UCLA Bruins and I pumped it up," Keflezighi said
after his victory.
On the women’s side, UCLA freshman Kim Mortensen finished as the
runner-up to Arizona’s Amy Skieresz for the second time in three
weeks.
Skieresz ran a dominating race in the same fashion that
Keflezighi did on the men’s side. By the 2-mile mark, Skieresz
already enjoyed a 10-yard lead over Mortensen. From that point on,
it was an uphill struggle for Mortensen to reach Skieresz, who won
the Pac-10 title for the second straight year. Skieresz broke her
old course record, set last year, with a time of 16:36.
Skieresz feels ready for the upcoming District VIII and NCAA
championships, and cannot wait for the regular season to come to an
end. Nonetheless, she still feels that she can improve.
"I’ve got three weeks to relax, train a little bit more, get a
little bit stronger and go for it," Skieresz said.
In a great show of sportsmanship, Mortensen made the effort
after the race to stand at the finish line, awaiting all runners to
cross the line in order to shake hands with every competitor.
"I love the competitiveness in this sport," an upbeat and
enthusiastic Mortensen said.
Even though the final results did not reward Mortensen with the
Pac-10 title, she knows that she is being groomed and trained to
run her best in two weeks, at the District VIII meet and the NCAA
championships in Tucson, Ariz. on Nov. 23.
* * *
UCLA also performed well in the team competition. The men’s team
was no match for the second-ranked Cardinal and fourth-ranked
Oregon, but the Bruins knew that a third-place finish would be the
only thing that would satisfy them. And they got it.
"We were really racing against Arizona," Devin Elizondo
said.
The 27th-ranked Bruins beat the 30th-ranked Wildcats by 10
points (93 to 103) and established themselves as a top-25 team.
"I think we definitely should get a ranking," Kevin Bowes of
UCLA said. "We deserve it, we’ve been moving up all year. I think
our time has come."
While UCLA took third, Stanford swept the men’s and women’s
races, both in dominating fashion.
Stanford, who was due to win the men’s race after several
frustrating defeats the past couple of years, doubled the points of
second-place finisher Oregon (29 to 58). The women’s team won in
even more decisive fashion over second-place finisher Washington
(39 to 82).
On the men’s side, the top five runners (the only ones that
count in the standings) finished between third and 13th. Brad
Hauser, Stanford’s top finisher, tripped just before the 1-mile
mark, but still managed a third-place finish.
The Bruin women were hoping for a third-place finish, but their
defeat of 20th-ranked Oregon was encouraging enough. Placing fourth
in a conference that could easily place three top-10 teams, the
Bruin women are on the upswing.
"They are improving so much," Peterson said. "We have five
freshmen that have never been here before. They did their job in
running together and staying under control."
Peterson emphasized the strong performances put forth by
Mortensen, Githa Hampson, Cristina Bowen, Jessica Corbin and
Katherina Kechris.
According to Kechris, she and the team have been improving a
great deal during the last few weeks, starting at the Pomona Invite
one week ago.
"I’ve finally got it together in these last couple of weeks,"
Kechris said. "The plan was for the five of us (the #3 through #7
runners) to run together and help each other out."
The Pac-10 championships racing became much more exciting.
"You see everybody yelling and you just wanna go faster,"
Kechris explains.
The women’s team is upbeat, because in two weeks at the District
VIII regionals, their whole season will come to a climax. The team
feels as if they are peaking at the right time.
"The District VIII meet is the meet. No question about it,"
Petersen said. "In two weeks, that’s the time when we have to be at
our best.
"This was like another practice. Districts are more important,"
Kechris explained.
Nevertheless, the men’s and women’s teams both find themselves
excited to be where they are at today.
"It is so exciting to be on this team," Kara Barnard said. "I am
just a walk-on and I did not expect to be here."
Little does she know, the excitement is just beginning.