PASADENA “”mdash; It was a new year, but the same old story at
the Brookside Country Club.
Stanford, ranked second in the nation, won the women’s
Pac-10 cross-country title for the seventh consecutive year; its
men’s team won for the third straight season.
The UCLA men’s and women’s teams, meanwhile,
finished fourth and eighth overall, respectively.
Junior Lena Nilsson led the Bruin women with her time of 20:01
in the 6000 meters, good for an overall third place individual
finish.
Also in the top 25 were sophomore Alejandra Barrientos (21:11,
ninth place), freshman Jenna Timinsky (21:30, 22nd place) and
sophomore Carmen Winant (21:31, 25th place).
Stanford amounted 23 team points, while Arizona State came in
second with 59 and Washington in third with 79 points. UCLA
finished with 86 team points.
Head coach Eric Peterson feels performance was a little low for
the women’s team.
“We knew coming in we were probably ranked third,”
he said. “We have to give Washington some credit. They came
in really strong and aggressive in the last 1500 meters.”
The women’s team, coming into the race ranked third among
Pac-10 schools, hopes to not become discouraged before the NCAA
West Region Qualifying meet Nov. 16.
Stanford’s domination of the men’s division was not
a surprise, as the Cardinal men are ranked first in the nation.
They took first with 19 team points. No. 5 Oregon took second
with 51 points, while the Bruin men gathered 183 points.
The highest UCLA men’s finisher was sophomore Erik
Emilsson in 24th with a time of 24:47 in the 8000m. Sophomores
Ben Aragon and Jon Rankin finished 31st and 45th, respectively, in
25:05 and 25:22. Sophomore Puneet Mahan came in with a time of
25:32 to take 50th.
For Rankin, it was his first race back for the men’s team after
coming off the injured list. Suffering from minor tendonitis in his
right calf, he felt his performance was not up to his full
potential.
“I was a little too excited to be back.” Rankin
felt. “I came out a little too aggressive.”
Prior to the championship races were an open women’s 6000m
and a men’s 8000m race. UCLA junior Tiffany Burgess was the
collegiate winner in the women’s race. The races did not
count towards the team championship standings.
Both teams are looking forward to the NCAA West Region
Qualifying meet at Stanford on Nov. 16.
This meet will give the teams a chance to see all the conference
teams again and redeem what they lost this past weekend.
The women’s team continues its attempt to qualify as a
team to the upcoming 2002 NCAA Championships for the fourth time in
the last five years.
The championships are scheduled for Nov. 25 in Terre Haute,
Ind.
On Oct. 19, the top runners from the women’s team competed
in a NCAA preview meet on the same course.