Going into the weekend, the Bruins needed an exceptional race in
order to salvage their season, but that race never
materialized.
The UCLA women’s cross country team fell short of its goal
on Saturday, finishing in fifth place at the West Region
Championships and failing to garner a bid to the NCAA Championships
for the second-straight year. Coming into the race, the team knew
that it was already the heavy underdog to move onto the NCAA meet
and it would take a huge upset of the region’s top three
teams to open the eyes of the NCAA selection committee.
“I knew that we had not done enough during the regular
season to warrant consideration,” coach Eric Peterson said.
“If the right thing had happened in other regions there may
have been a chance, but unfortunately that was not the
case.”
The team’s decent showing over the weekend was just not
enough to overcome its disappointing season, which was filled with
injuries and illness. Coupled with the fact that this has been an
uncharacteristically poor year for the West Region, the Bruins
would have had to have a breakout race. Only three West Region
teams will move onto the NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Ind.
While missing the championships is not a surprise, not having
any individuals qualify is a bit of a shock as the team has had
five All-Americans in cross country in the past five years.
Sophomore Allie Bohannon, the team’s top runner on Saturday
(11th, 21:39), finished just two spots from an individual berth to
the championships, putting a premature end to an impressive season
that saw her become the team’s best competitor toward the
year’s end.
“She has had a great season,” Peterson said.
“I think she is at a point right now that if she were to run
at the NCAA Championships, she would surprise a lot of people, but
next time we will look forward to that.”
Saturday also marked the end of red shirt senior Ashley
Caldwell’s illustrious cross country career. Caldwell, one of
three Bruin women to ever win All-American honors multiple times in
the sport and the only to do it in non-consecutive years, finished
in 19th place (21:57). The rest of the UCLA lineup was comprised of
sophomore Olga Aulet-Leon (46th, 22:36) and red shirt seniors Jenna
Timinsky, (47th, 22:37) and Allison Hall (51st, 22:44).
Stanford won the event with UC Santa Barbara taking the last
automatic-qualifying spot. Arizona State won the region’s
only at-large bid.