UCLA needed to make a statement on Saturday, but they simply had
too many setbacks to overcome.
The women’s cross country team competed at the pre-NCAA
Invitational over the weekend in Terre Haute, Ind., coming in 17th
place. Although the field included several of the nation’s
top squads, the team’s finish is somewhat disheartening as
they had hoped to place higher and shed the ill effects of a few
untimely injuries and illnesses which have hampered the
Bruins’ performance this season.
“We feel like we get a little closer each race,”
coach Eric Peterson said. “We are getting strong leadership
at the front of the pack, and I see great improvement in our core
runners.”
As usual, the women had great representation in the front of the
lineup with senior Ashley Caldwell (43rd, 21:02) and redshirt
sophomore Allie Bohannon (49th, 21:05) pacing the team. Caldwell
has been the unquestioned leader in terms of leadership and
performance, but Bohannon has steadily made a name for herself as
well, closing the gap between her and Caldwell every race.
“Allie has shown immense growth this season,”
Peterson said. “I am so pleased to see where she is at, and I
think as time goes on people will see that she is going to
continually (be) running in the front of the pack.”
While those two have anchored UCLA, injuries have made it hard
for the team to put together a complete race as nearly every other
top runner has either gotten hurt or fallen victim to illness,
costing valuable training time. The rest of the top five included
redshirt sophomore Olga Aulet-Leon (83rd, 21:31), redshirt senior
Allison Hall (133rd, 21:58) and freshman Nicole Pennes (136th,
21:59). The Bruins have had different top-five runners in nearly
every meet and Peterson knows that if his team wants to be
competing deep into November they will need to start putting the
pieces together.
“We are still struggling to find some consistency among
our top five,” Peterson said. “This makes the Pac-10
meet all the more important, and that is something we are going to
be working on.”
If UCLA has any shot at making a run to the NCAA Championship
meet, it will need stronger performances from runners such as
junior Claire Rethmeier (173rd, 22:21) and redshirt senior Jenna
Timinsky (180th, 22:27), both of whom are trying to get completely
healthy.
The team has two weeks before the Pac-10 Championship meet,
which will be held in Palo Alto, Calif.