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By Michael Sneag

Daily Bruin Contributor

Establishing an identity with a young team can be a slow and awkward process. At the Roy Griak Invitational, in St. Paul, Minn., the UCLA men’s and women’s cross country teams were exposed to major national talent for the first time this season and dealt with the experience in varying ways.

The women’s team finished eighth out of 32 teams. Freshman Alejandra Barrientos continued to be the No. 1 Bruin runner, finishing 21st overall with a time of 21:27 for the 6,000 meter course.

“Alejandra has been very consistent,” UCLA head coach Eric Peterson said. “She is well-suited to running at the front of the team. The team is also very comfortable and confident with her as a leader, which for a freshman is very impressive.”

Sophomore Valerie Flores was next (31st, 21:48), followed by an impressive performance by freshman Lori Mann (52nd, 22:04). Junior Elaine Canchola (70th, 22:18), freshman Carolyn Shea (102nd, 22:33), and sophomores Tiffany Burgess (164th, 23:04) and Jessica Marr (167th, 23:08) rounded out the top Bruin runners.

“We got a huge race out of Flores,” Peterson said. “It was the biggest race of her Bruin career. We also got great races out of Mann and Shea. Those three made a big difference in our team performance today.”

The men’s team didn’t fare as well, finishing 30th out of 36 teams.

The team suffered from a lack of experience and injuries at the moment, and it showed on Saturday. Missing top runners Jon Rankin (recent stress fracture), Andrew Wulf (still recovering from an Achilles injury), and with senior leader Bryan Green suffering from a respiratory infection, the team was forced to rely on freshman.

Freshman Ben Aragon was the top Bruin (112th, 25:27), followed by Green (148th, 25:42) and junior Phil Young (188th, 25:59).

“Aragon had a great day,” Peterson said. “He is making great improvements and is going to be a very competitive runner by the end of the season. All our freshmen, especially Aragon, Kuebler, Puneet and Nuemuller are just beginning to scratch the surface.”

The men’s team is going to have to rely on freshmen for the rest of the year, and as all teams loaded with freshmen do, they are going through a learning period at the moment. They will make some progress and have already started to do so, but right now, the learning curve is very steep.

The women’s team had something to prove coming into the meet and managed to meet a lot of those expectations. Competing in the Pac-10, they face the toughest conference in the country, with Stanford, Arizona and Arizona State ranked in the top 15. They beat six teams in the current top 25, something that will probably put them in the top 25 national poll and will also help them later in the year in qualifying for the NCAA Championships.

Both the men’s and women’s teams are battling injuries, inexperience and dealing with adversity. Trying to do all that while establishing a team identity is something not easy to do on the run.