Bruins Take Second At Long Beach State Invitational

Cross Country

Eric Peterson's UCLA women's team placed first, beating Stanford, the nation's top-ranked team, and Bob Larsen's Bruin men's squad was second at the Long Beach State Cross Country Invitational, held

Oct. 9, 1999

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Eric Peterson's UCLA women's team placed first, beating Stanford, the nation's top-ranked team, and Bob Larsen's Bruin men's squad was second at the Long Beach State Cross Country Invitational, held at El Dorado Park (East) on Saturday (Oct. 9). The course will host the upcoming 1999 Pacific-10 Championships on Saturday, Oct. 30.

In the women's team scoring at Long Beach, the Bruins, ranked No. 19 in the U. S., won the title with 34 points, placing four runners in the Top 10, led by women's individual winner, UCLA sophomore Elaine Canchola. Over the 5000m course, Canchola nipped USC's Anna Lapacivch, by a time of 17:28 to 17:32. The top five teams (out of 10) were-- No. 19 UCLA (first place,34 points), No. 1 Stanford (second-place, 57), Fila Track West (third-place, 68), Cal Poly-SLO (fourth-place, 124) and USC (fifth-place, 156).

UCLA's other runners in the top 10 included--sophomore Kate Vermeulen (sixth-place, 17:53), junior Kelly Cohn (seventh-place, 17:54) and junior Katie Nuanes (eighth-place, 17:57). UCLA's other top runners included-sophomore Alynda Franco (12th, 18:07), senior Kara Barnard (20th, 18:31) and senior Melinda George (23rd, 18:51). This was Vermeulen's first completed race of the season. She's a transfer from West Virginia who last winter won the mile at the NCAA Indoor.

The Bruin men were second in their team standings, with 39 points, behind winner California, with 33. The top five (out of seven) men's teams were-California (first-place, 33), UCLA (second-place, 39), Long Beach State (third-place, 76), Men of Troy (fourth-place, 96) and Azusa Pacific (fifth-place, 130).

California placed runners in the first, second and third positions, while the Bruins had three runners in the top 10. The Bruins placed runners in the fourth (senior Will Bernaldo, 24:42), fifth (junior Scott Abbott, 24:46) and seventh (senior Matt Pitts, 24:52) positions. Other top UCLA men's runners were-freshman Justin Patananan (11th, 25:14), junior Mason Moore (12th, 25:24), senior Dan Brecht (13th, 25:32) and freshman Phil Young (14th, 25:33). UCLA was without runners, senior Paul Muite and sophomore Bryan Green (calf injury).

California's Asmerom Bolota won the men's individual race, finishing the 8000m course in 24:16.

The Bruins next Saturday (Oct. 16) will compete at the Pre-NCAA Meet, held at Bloomington, IN and hosted by the University of Indiana. The upcoming 1999 NCAA Championships will be Nov. 22 in Bloomington. Last season, UCLA' women's squad qualified as a team for the NCAA, for the first time since 1988.