UCLA came into Saturday’s race with a lot of momentum, and
that momentum was evident on the course.
The men’s cross country team competed at the Pac-10
Championships over the weekend in Palo Alto, capturing fifth place
in one of the nation’s top conferences. The team has been on
the rise this season, accomplishing more than many thought was
possible with such a young team.
“I thought we performed very well,” coach Eric
Peterson said. “When you look at the race from top to bottom,
once again, we had a very strong performance.”
Going up against five highly ranked opponents, UCLA held its
own, defeating quality teams such as No. 26 ranked Washington and
unranked California.
Led by another strong race by junior Kyle Shackleton, the
team’s leading four runners all finished within the top 30,
displaying the type of group-running that has been the backbone of
this year’s squad.
“This field this year was a lot more competitive than we
ran in last year, a lot more,” Peterson said. “I was
really encouraged by the way the team ran. Our one through four
runners once again showed their ability to work as a
group.”
Shackleton finished in 15th place over the 8,000 meter course
(23:51). Though this was not his best race, Peterson sees
Shackleton’s progression as a hint at bigger things to
come.
“This is the sign of an athlete really maturing into a
Division 1, big-time competitive runner when they are able to go
out and try some new things,” Peterson said. “I asked
him to push the pace earlier in the race than he has all season
long, and he showed that he could do that for a while.”
No. 7 Oregon narrowly won the meet over last year’s
conference champion, No. 5 Stanford. The two heavyweights were
followed by No. 25 Arizona and unranked Arizona State.
“We are a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get
Arizona State,” Peterson said. “We were shooting for a
top-four finish, but we aren’t discouraged because there
isn’t a bad team in the Pac-10 Conference.”
Just one place behind Shackleton was junior Michael Haddan
(23:53), who earned All-Pac-10 honors in this race a year ago.
Rounding out the top five were sophomore Laef Barnes (25th, 24:20),
redshirt sophomore Drew Shackleton (30th, 24:26) and freshman Jake
Matthews (51st, 24:58). The team now turns its attention to the
Western Regional meet in two weeks. Because of the depth in the
region this year, Peterson feels his club’s recent surge will
strengthen its case for a bid to the NCAA Championships.
“This is the deepest I have seen this region in a very
long time,” Peterson said. “I can see seven or eight
teams coming out of this region, and we could be one of them. We
just have to compete with teams like Portland, UC Santa Barbara and
Cal Poly.”