Kyle Shackleton is quickly making a mark for himself in the
cross country community.
The junior had yet another strong performance over the weekend,
pacing the Bruins to an impressive 14th-place finish at the
pre-NCAA Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday.
“This is probably the race that I have been looking
forward to the most,” Shackleton said.
With a time of 24:08 over the 8,000 meter course, Shackleton
placed 25th in a loaded field to continue his breakout season.
The meet is a precursor to the NCAA National Championship race
in November held at the same site and is usually a good indicator
of how teams will fare heading into the postseason.
Based on the weekend’s results, head coach Eric Peterson
has reason to be optimistic.
“We had another strong day from our top-four
runners,” Peterson said. “We really are seeing the
pieces that we need to have on this coming together.”
In their race, the currently unranked Bruins topped several
ranked squads including No. 22 Ohio State. Beating quality teams
during the season is crucial if UCLA has any hope of receiving an
at-large berth to the NCAA Championships, especially in the loaded
Western Region which boasts six ranked teams.
“The West Region is by far the deepest and toughest
region,” Peterson said. “We are going to need to
improve at the Pac-10 meet and have our best race at the Western
Regionals. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Behind Shackleton, the Bruins core group consisted of junior
Michael Haddan, who placed 63rd with a time of 24:35; sophomore
Laef Barnes, who clocked in at 24:44 to place 76th; and redshirt
sophomore Drew Shackleton who came in 87th at 24:48.
In the fifth position was freshman Jake Matthews, who placed
155th with a time of 25:14. Fellow freshman Marlon Patterson was
running exceptionally well until he was tripped up from behind in
the middle of the race, greatly hindering the rest of his run.
“We are waiting for Marlon to have a breakout race,”
Peterson said. “He was well on his way today, but it was
unfortunate that he was tripped.”
Despite the incident, Patterson was still able to finish the
race, though he crossed the finish line in 185th place.
The team will have two weeks to prepare for the Pac-10
Championships, where they will begin their postseason run.