Considering the women’s cross country team’s last place Pac-10 performance last year, the three-position leap in the rankings this year was already a noteworthy feat.
Sending a runner to the NCAA Championships ““ an All-West Region performer at that ““ is all the more impressive.
But with junior Shannon Murakami and senior Marco Anzures back from the NCAA Championships, the Cinderella year, as Murakami put it, is over.
“It was difficult to determine the place I would have been at the end of season,” Murakami said.
As the season stormed by, Murakami, a second-team All-Pac-10 honoree, emerged as a dominant and reliable leader to whom the Bruins consistently turned, the stabilizer in light of previous conflicts between the athletes and the coaching staff.
But instead of allowing past distractions to impact her performances, Murakami let her nerves play the role of determining the season’s final race.
“It was hard to fall asleep the previous night before the race,” she said.
And as she got revved up for the race, she could not help but tighten up with tension. And a whole new learning experience was unveiled.
“I could have definitely gone out a little easier,” Murakami said. “It’s a working mistake for first-time running. Nerves played a big role. I over-thought it.”
Though disappointed at an upper-mid pack 114th place finish in 21:24.5, it’s hard for the team not to relish in the thought of next season’s prospects.
“Hopefully we will be coming here next year and we can experience (nationals) as an entire team,” Murakami said.
“We are going to be a lot better next year ““ we will definitely be in reach of being a top five team.”
With the top five runners all returning and a strong recruiting class coming to run for coach Forest Braden, dwelling among the lower-tier Pac-10 squads seems all the more unlikely.
On the men’s side, Anzures, the sole Bruin to represent the men’s team at the NCAA’s, finished 249th with a time of 35:10.01 in the 10k race.
Murakami added her performance Monday was less than perfect, but she is optimistic of the future.
“It was a bummer for Nationals to be the worst race this year, but looking back I had a great season ““ it was almost a Cinderella season,” Murakami said.