Top men and women collegiate cross-country runners are scheduled
to run this Saturday in the 2002 Pacific-10 Conference
Championships. The meet, hosted by UCLA, will be held at the
Brookside Country Club in Pasadena, adjacent to the Rose Bowl.
Scheduled to run for the UCLA women’s team are juniors
Lena Nilsson, Valerie Flores and Melissa McBain; sophomores
Alejandra Barrientos, Lori Mann and Carmen Winant; and freshmen
Jenna Timinsky, Allison Hall, Sarah West and Laura Muller.
Nilsson, who led the team at the NCAA preview meet with her
eighth place finish, expects a second place finish for the
Bruins.
“Anything else is probably a disappointment,”
Nilsson said.
She thinks a second place finish can be achieved if the team
runs the way they know they can. Stanford, ranked second in the
nation, is expected to win the meet.
The UCLA men’s team is scheduled to run senior Phil Young;
sophomores Ben Aragon, Jon Rankin, Erik Emilsson, Puneet Mahan,
Reggie Oronoz and Bryan Bauerle; freshmen Martell Munuiga, Nick De
Felice and Mohammed Qazi.
Jon Rankin has been on the injured list and this will be his
first meet back competing for the Bruin men. Mohammed Qazi is a new
addition to the men’s team, having run his debut meet last
Friday at the Fullerton Invitational.
Sophomore Ben Aragon has an optimistic goal for this
weekend.
“Ideally we’ll place fourth then gradually move up
through the years,” Aragon said.
Individually he hopes to place in the top ten.
UCLA head coach Eric Peterson feels the same way. Though both
teams are young, he feels they have demonstrated the experience
needed to achieve similar goals to the ones set by Nilsson and
Aragon.
“The thing we have going for us is the kids are feeling
good and enthusiastic about the meet” Peterson said.
Both teams expect lots of friends and family to cheer on the
runners.
Also running this weekend is nationally ranked Stanford, Arizona
State and Washington in the women’s division, and Stanford,
Oregon and Arizona State in the men’s division. The meet
begins at 8:30 a.m. with a 6000m gender combined “B”
race. The 6000m women’s championship race will begin at 9:30
a.m. and the men’s 8000m race will begin at 10:30 a.m.