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Cross country men impressive, while women flounder

The UA men's cross country team ran an impressive race, finishing third at the Pre-NCAA Invitational over the weekend in Bloomington, Ind., while the UA women's team finished 19th.

"The men ran strongly, showing consistency in the strength of the runners in a large field," head coach Dave Murray said.

Senior Micheil Jones led the men's team finishing with a time of 24:14.97 placing him in fifth place individually for the meet.

"The men had a bad starting position," Murray said. "Micheil worked himself up to run with the front runners after being basically in last place,"

Junior David Lopez finished 35th with a time of 24:55.18. Sophomore Steve Smith was 38th at 24:57.88, sophomore Tom Prindiville was 51st in 25:09.91, and sophomore Mike Cramer was 63rd in 25:17.00.

The men's team finished with 186 points. Stanford finished in first place with 126 points, Colorado was second with 140 points and Georgetown was fourth with 194 points.

The UA women's team struggled, other than sophomore Tara Chaplin, to finish 19th with 484 points. Stanford won the race with 77 points and Brigham Young was second with 116 points.

"Most of the runners on the women's team are inexperienced, and they got freaked out by the competition on the course," Murray said. "They didn't run aggressively at all, they ran really timid."

All except for Chaplin, who finished fifth individually with a time of 17:24.75.

"Tara ran really beautifully," Murray said. "She was passed at the 4,000-meter mark where she had been leading the race until then."

Junior Katrin Engelen was 95th with a time of 18:34.05, sophomore Jennifer Burris was 120th at 18:48.04, sophomore Erin Doherty was 134th at 18:55.63, and freshman Kim Bates was 145th at 19:01.65.

"Overall this race was a good experience for both teams," Murray said.

The Wildcats next race will be Oct. 30 at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Long Beach, Calif.