Bruins prepare for strong opponents

David Garcia,
Published: Friday, September 29, 2006

Coach Eric Peterson loved the atmosphere in Oregon as a runner, and this weekend he will finally be able to share that with his team.

Both the UCLA men’s and women’s cross country teams will be competing at the first annual Bill Dellinger Invitational tonight in picturesque Eugene, Ore. Peterson, who was an All-American athlete at the University of Oregon, sees this race not only as a chance for his squads to face off against quality opponents, but also as somewhat of a homecoming.

“It is an extreme honor to bring my teams to the Bill Dellinger Invitational,” Peterson said. “Bill Dellinger was my coach while I was there, and it will be great for us to compete in the inaugural race in his honor.”

The race will be held on the historic “Pre’s Trail,” named after great American runner Steve Prefontaine, and is the first collegiate race held on the trail since 1998.

Pleasantries asides, the Bruins will be facing off against some of the top teams in the nation. On the women’s side, the race will feature seven of the country’s top 30 squads. Coming off of a respectable showing last weekend in Minnesota at the Roy Griak Invitational, the Bruins would still like to close the gap between the core group of runners and will use today’s race to try and accomplish that.

“I think this will be a good chance to work on our team running,” senior Ashley Caldwell said. “We did fairly well early on last weekend, but we need to work on maintaining that throughout the race.”

The women will be without the services of junior Claire Rethmeier, one of the team’s top five runners, who will miss the race because of a slight foot injury.

The men will face an equally talented field – they will line up against eight highly ranked opponents. The team will be looking to improve upon its subpar showing a week earlier, when it finished in 15th place in Minnesota.

“If we want to improve upon what we did last week, we have to learn to run more as a unit,” Peterson said. “It doesn’t matter the order, we need to focus on running as a group.”