UCLA Cross Country Races Over The Weekend

Cross Country

LOS ANGELES - Eric Peterson's UCLA cross country teams on Saturday competed in invitationals at two different locations. The Bruin men's team placed third at the Sun Dodger Invite in Seattle, WA and t

Sept. 25, 2000

LOS ANGELES - Eric Peterson's UCLA cross country teams on Saturday competed in invitationals at two different locations. The Bruin men's team placed third at the Sun Dodger Invite in Seattle, WA and the UCLA women's squad placed 18th at the Roy Griak Invite in Minneapolis.

Sun Dodger
The Bruin men placed third (63 points) out of nine teams in the 8000m invite held at Lincoln Park in Seattle. First-place was host Washington (41), followed by No. 10 Michigan (58), UCLA, Texas Tech (112) and Washington State (140), rounding out the top five squads.

The race winner was Michigan's Mark Pilja, running the 8000m course in 23:52.04.

Individually, the Bruin men were led by seniors, Bryan Green and Paul Muite. Green, who has led the Bruin men in all three meets this season, placed seventh in a time of 24:33.52 and Muite was ninth (24:36.61).

Also running well for the Bruins were - freshman Jon Rankin (18th, 24:49.41), senior Scott Abbott (26th, 25:01.06), junior Andrew Wulf (30th, 25:05.39) and junior Justin Patananan (37th, 25:21.72).

Rounding out the UCLA men were senior Mason Moore (41st, 25:28.03), sophomore Phil Young (46th, 25:37.85), junior Martin Brix (55th, 26:13.14) and senior Jonathan Lee (73rd, 27:30.13).

Also at the Sun Dodger, the Bruins ran a women's "B" team in the women's open 6000m. UCLA placed seventh (out of 15 squads) in the team standings with 190 points. The team winner was Seattle Pacific (40 points).

Rachel Ross of Seattle Pacific won the women's 6000m open, in a time of 21:50.18.

The Bruins' top runners were freshman Michelle Barrack (17th, 23:04.29), junior Bridie Hatch (18th, 23:04.46) and freshman Jessica Marr (34th, 23:46.53).

Griak
At the Griak Invite in Minneapolis, the UCLA women's "A" team placed 18th (out of 29 teams), with 463 points over the 6000m at the Bolstad Golf Course in Minneapolis. The top five teams were winner No. 13 Minnesota (98), Yale (127), No. 7 Arizona State (140), Arizona (146) and No. 11 Providence (159). The Griak Invite is the third largest collegiate cross country meet in the U. S. and named after long-time Gopher head track and field coach Roy Griak.

The winner of the women's 6000m invite was Arizona's Tara Chaplin, running the course in 21:00.

UCLA's top two runners were seniors, Katie Nuanes and Christina Bowen. Nuanes placed 47th, with a time of 22:08. Bowen, who had led the Bruins in their first two meets this season, placed 68th, 22:29. Also running for the UCLA women were - sophomore Kelly Grimes (110th, 22:59), senior Gina Donnelly (115th, 23:03), sophomore Melissa McBain (123rd, 23:12), freshman Valerie Flores (148th, 23:34) and sophomore Julia Barbour (154th, 23:39).

Next Saturday (Sept. 30), the Bruin men and women will compete at the Stanford Invitational.