A season ago, the UCLA women’s cross country team was seeking an identity for a group of disunified runners.
And after a whirlwind of coaching staff changes, the team has rallied nicely behind the lead of junior Shannon Murakami and has climbed to seventh place in the Pac-10 standings.
“They’re a completely different team from the start of the season,” assistant coach Forest Braden said. “They’re not going to be at the bottom of the Pac-10 anymore ““ they’re going to exert themselves now and make a statement for the future.”
With Murakami scoring and the rest of the girls filling in, including sophomores Katja Goldring and Sadee Martinez, the time gaps between the runners have vastly decreased and the Bruins look to capitalize on a momentous opportunity today at the Pac-10 Championships in Long Beach.
“One thing our team has done better is to catch the Bruin runner ahead of you,” Murakami said.
“We’ve done it in practice the past couple of weeks, and we’ve done a great job of it, and we are going to bring that to the race, too.”
The men, too, are yearning to forget a brutally painful race in Terre Haute, Ind., where the pack went out at a pace far too fast. And looking back at it, Braden feels that perhaps he strategized too much.
“With the training we’ve been doing, we should have raced a little bit differently,” Braden said. “We weren’t ready to go out as fast as we did. We went out blazing. It would suited us better to have raced a little more conservatively, hang back a little bit, just that first kilometer and then just move up and respond.”
Now going up against an outstanding Pac-10 field which features four ranked teams, the Bruins will need to minimize mistakes as they have a big opportunity to surprise people who may have written off the Bruins.
“We just have to be tough when we’re out there,” senior Alex Crabill said. “It’s tough, and it’s hard when we’re out there, but we just have to be tough and work through it to realize our goals.”
With a group of seniors ““ Marco Anzures, Crabill and Marlon Patterson ““ who have all toed the line at nationals, the Bruins are more than ready to perform on Friday.
“They’re ready,” Braden said. “Their fitness has always been there; now it’s just about competing, and they’re ready ““ most of them have been here three or four times.”
“No one is expecting us to take over the world right now,” Braden said. “So it’s off our shoulders, so we just have to go out there and run.”