By Pauline Vu

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Last year when the Bruins went to the Cal State Fullerton Invitational, the competition was so that weak women’s cross country coach Eric Peterson divided the Bruins into two teams – the gray team and the white team – and had his own intersquad competition during the meet.

The gray team won.

So did the Bruins.

“I wanted to keep our kids motivated about the competition,” Peterson said. “We knew going in that meet that our team was the strongest.”

But this year UCLA won’t need any extra motivation in the Fullerton Invitational on Sept. 2. It’s not that the competition has grown any stronger, but the Bruins themselves, with only two top runners from last year, appear to be in the midst of a rebuilding season.

That’s why a meet like the Fullerton Invitational is a good season opener.

“The two first dates on our schedule are preseason meets. We intentionally try to find some lower-tier meets,” Peterson said.

As outlined by Peterson, the seventh-year women’s head coach and a first-year men’s head coach, the goals are simple. First – get the team off to a good start. Second – evaluate some of the lower-key athletes.

“I’m certainly hopeful that we will get off to a start with two victories,” Peterson said, referring to both teams, “but I’m more concerned about developing my teams at this point.”

Although the women’s cross country team only has two returners in senior Katie Nuanes and junior Alynda Franco, the team also has two experienced redshirts, senior Christina Bowen and junior Julie Ott.

On the men’s side there is more experience, with six runners returning from last year’s squad. Like the women, the men ran well at Fullerton last year, placing second at the Invitational.

“We have a good team. We’re gonna try to improve this year,” senior Paul Muite said.

Last year wasn’t a good one for the men, who finished seventh out of eight teams at Pac-10 championships. They did not continue to NCAA Championships.

Despite their poor finish, the men are optimistic about their experience. Including Muite, the team has three seniors and three juniors.

“We’re a lot closer (to each other) and we’ve been here a longer time,” Muite said. “We’ve experienced bad seasons, and we know what it takes to do better.”

Team captain and senior Scott Abbott pointed out that before team practice started last week the men had been running individually, about 50 to 80 miles a week.

“That shows a lot of dedication. That shows we want it,” Abbott said. “We’re not happy with the results we’ve had in the past.”

So for this 2000 season, in which both the women and men want to prove themselves in the collegiate cross country world, the Fullerton Invitational is a good place to start.