WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY Saturday, 8 a.m. Pre-NCAA
Invitational Terre Haute, Ind.
If the Bruins hope to keep running late into the postseason,
they will need to make a statement starting this weekend.
The UCLA women’s cross country team will head out to Terre
Haute, Ind., this weekend to take part in the biggest race so far
this year: the Pre-NCAA Invitational.
While they had high hopes coming into this season, some untimely
injuries have set the team back a few steps, meaning that they will
have to improve their performance in meets like Saturday’s in
order to ensure their spot as a top Pac-10 team.
“There is a sense of urgency that we need to
answer,” coach Eric Peterson said. “Right now we are
maybe fourth or fifth in the West Region, and that is not going to
be enough to get into the NCAA Championships.”
The top of the lineup has been the team’s strong point,
with senior Ashley Caldwell consistently finishing near the top of
every pack in each race.
Followed by the emergence of redshirt sophomore Allie Bohannon,
the Bruins have formed quite a formidable one-two punch.
“Ashley and Allie have been outstanding for us,”
Peterson said. “Allie especially has shown us that she can
now consistently run with that top pack.”
Where the squad has had trouble is having consistent three, four
and five runners.
While they have no lack of depth, the group behind Caldwell and
Bohannon has struggled to run as a pack, partly because of various
illnesses and injuries to key runners such as redshirt senior Jenna
Timinsky and junior Claire Rethmeier. Peterson said both Timinsky
and Rethmeier will be back at full strength this weekend.
“This is the strongest team this year that we are running
this weekend,” Peterson said.
Those bumps and bruises will need to heal quickly, as the Bruins
will be going up against 24 of the nation’s top 30 cross
country teams on Saturday, none of whom will be concerned with the
Bruin’s bout with the injury bug.
“We need to start doing something for ourselves starting
this weekend,” Peterson said. “We can’t sit back
and wait for other teams to have injuries like we have,” he
said.