Pac-10 Championship 1. Stanford 51 2. ASU 67 3. Arizona 79 4. UCLA 134
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Although the Bruins didn’t run a particularly poor race, their performance Saturday at the Pac-10 Championships all but eliminated them from the pool of teams contending for an at-large bid to the NCAA Finals.
Finishing sixth out of the nine teams present at Lincoln Park in Seattle, Wash., the UCLA women’s cross country squad flew back to Los Angeles last weekend knowing its last race would likely be the West Regionals on Nov. 11.
“It was a very average race for our team,” said senior captain Christina Bowen. “No one ran incredible and no one ran terrible.”
And that wasn’t enough.
“We really needed to upset a team to get on the bubble,” said head coach Eric Peterson, referring to the four schools in the field that are ranked in the top eight nationally.
The race went out quickly, as defending individual champion Erin Sullivan of Stanford immediately went to the front.
Bowen and fellow Bruin senior Katie Nuanes, who were a few strides behind the lead pack, went through the first mile at 5:06.
Junior Bridie Hatch trailed at 5:12 and the rest of UCLA’s team was at 5:16.
Soon after, Arizona, the No. 8 team in the country, made its move. Prior to the race, Peterson told his team to key in on the Wildcats, but the Bruins couldn’t respond.
“I was running as hard as I could,” Hatch said. “Things were just happening around me and I couldn’t react.”
The field started to string out and UCLA never made up the ground.
Tara Chaplin of Arizona, who took the lead when Sullivan dropped out at the 2,000-meter mark, won the individual contest in 20:10.67.
Arizona State’s Lisa Aguilera completed the 4K a little more than nine seconds later, coming in at 20:19.95 for second. Stanford’s Lauren Fleshman was third in 20:34.84.
Nuanes, the Bruins’ top finisher, hit the line in 21:11.23, claiming 12th place.
Bowen, who had been UCLA’s No. 1 runner all season, was 14th (21:15.40). She entered the race nursing a slight cold and said afterwards that she was weakened by it.
“The whole week, I knew I was about to get sick and I did everything I could not to,” she said, her voice sounding raspy. “It’s frustrating after you work so hard all year.
“But I was happy I was able to pull through. I couldn’t have run any faster on this day.”
Sophomore Kelly Grimes was third on the team, running what Peterson called “the best cross country race of her life.” She was 31st in 22:01.99.
Hatch (38th, 22:25.46) and sophomore Melissa McBain (39th, 22:30.10) were the other two Bruin scorers.
UCLA’s sixth and seventh runners were senior Gina Donnelly (48th, 22:56.07) and sophomore Julia Barbour (49th, 22:59.21).
No. 2 Stanford won its fifth straight conference title with a total of 51 points. No. 4 Arizona State (67), Arizona (79) and No. 6 Washington (83) were next.
The Bruins, meanwhile, tallied 134 points, allowing Washington State (124) to sneak by them.
With only two schools from the West Regionals automatically going to the NCAAs and UCLA’s chances for an at-large bid minimal, the Bruins are well aware of the position they are in.
The team, nonetheless, hasn’t given up.
“We recognize our chance for nationals isn’t as good as it was before,” Bowen said. “But we still have hope. You can’t run without hope. For the next two weeks, everyone is going to run their butts off.”
“I think we should go into the race looking as if we’re never going to run again,” Hatch added. “We’re going to run with as much emotion and heart as we have. We have nothing to lose.”