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UCLA’s Jon Rankin (right) placed 45th in Saturday’s Pac-10 finals in Pasadena.

PASADENA — It was a new year, but the same old story at the Brookside Country Club.

Stanford, ranked second in the nation, won the women’s Pac-10 cross-country title for the seventh consecutive year; its men’s team won for the third straight season.

The UCLA men’s and women’s teams, meanwhile, finished fourth and eighth overall, respectively.

Junior Lena Nilsson led the Bruin women with her time of 20:01 in the 6000 meters, good for an overall third place individual finish.

Also in the top 25 were sophomore Alejandra Barrientos (21:11, ninth place), freshman Jenna Timinsky (21:30, 22nd place) and sophomore Carmen Winant (21:31, 25th place).

Stanford amounted 23 team points, while Arizona State came in second with 59 and Washington in third with 79 points. UCLA finished with 86 team points.

Head coach Eric Peterson feels performance was a little low for the women’s team.

“We knew coming in we were probably ranked third,” he said. “We have to give Washington some credit. They came in really strong and aggressive in the last 1500 meters.”

The women’s team, coming into the race ranked third among Pac-10 schools, hopes to not become discouraged before the NCAA West Region Qualifying meet Nov. 16.

Stanford’s domination of the men’s division was not a surprise, as the Cardinal men are ranked first in the nation.

They took first with 19 team points. No. 5 Oregon took second with 51 points, while the Bruin men gathered 183 points.

The highest UCLA men’s finisher was sophomore Erik Emilsson in 24th with a time of 24:47 in the 8000m. Sophomores Ben Aragon and Jon Rankin finished 31st and 45th, respectively, in 25:05 and 25:22. Sophomore Puneet Mahan came in with a time of 25:32 to take 50th.

For Rankin, it was his first race back for the men's team after coming off the injured list. Suffering from minor tendonitis in his right calf, he felt his performance was not up to his full potential.

“I was a little too excited to be back.” Rankin felt. “I came out a little too aggressive.”

Prior to the championship races were an open women’s 6000m and a men’s 8000m race. UCLA junior Tiffany Burgess was the collegiate winner in the women’s race. The races did not count towards the team championship standings.

Both teams are looking forward to the NCAA West Region Qualifying meet at Stanford on Nov. 16.

This meet will give the teams a chance to see all the conference teams again and redeem what they lost this past weekend.

The women’s team continues its attempt to qualify as a team to the upcoming 2002 NCAA Championships for the fourth time in the last five years.

The championships are scheduled for Nov. 25 in Terre Haute, Ind.

On Oct. 19, the top runners from the women’s team competed in a NCAA preview meet on the same course.