High expectations were shattered once again this week for UCLA
sports.
The women’s cross country team placed 25th out of 31 teams
at the NCAA Championships yesterday in Terre Haute, Ind. Going into
the race, the team was shooting for a place in the top 15.
“I’m less than pleased,” head coach Eric
Peterson said. “We obviously didn’t accomplish the team
goals that we wanted to, but I think the level of improvement
individually is noteworthy.”
Peterson singled out junior Lena Nilsson and sophomore Alejandra
Barrientos, with both showing significant improvement from last
year’s race.
Nilsson finished 17th overall, improving from 135th last year,
to earn the first All-American performance by a Bruin since Karen
Hecox in 1994. All-American honors are given to the top 20
runners.
Barrientos improved with an 86th place finish after coming in
125th last year.
Valerie Flores finished third for the Bruins and 180th
overall.
North Carolina junior Shalene Flanagan won the race, setting a
new course record and maintaining her undefeated season status.
Flanagan was favored to win the title this year and ran the 6,000-
meter course with a time of 19:36.
Peterson felt Flores’ performance in particular had a big
part in helping UCLA salvage its team performance.
“Given the fact that both Lori Mann and Jenna Timinsky
were off today, we really needed that performance to salvage any
sort of respectable team finish with such a deep field and so many
good runners out there,” Peterson said.
Weather was an issue some of the women struggled with during the
race, as the temperature was 37 degrees, and it was windy.
“It was a contributing factor but not as big a factor as
our youth and inexperience,” Peterson said in his
teams’ defense. “I think some of our more experienced
and accomplished athletes, for example Lena (Nilsson) and Alexandra
(Barrientos), handled the potential distraction of the weather a
lot better than the rest of the team.”
The top two finishing teams stayed true to their national rank;
Brigham Young University won the title with 85 points while
Stanford came in second with 113. Notre Dame finished third,
Georgetown fourth and Colorado fifth overall.
The women’s cross-country season is now officially over.
All but one runner is expected to return next year.
“I am left trying to focus on the positive aspect of the
race today and the season.” Peterson said.