UCLA XC - What's Up???

both very similar in stature and in stature and in being complete dumbasses.

sorry here is what should be the second link and it should read both very similar in stature and in being complete dumbasses.

now i feel like a dumbass

For a long time I have granted the benefit of the doubt to Eric and the Bruin squads. It now appears that things are beginning to unravel there this fall. The men's 7th place finish could still be termed as underachieving. The women: = T-R-O-U-B-L-E. WTF?

It can't be an easy place to coach cross given the fact that is is a track school, but there's no excuse for the results that they have produced.

I am pretty sure that the Saugus girls XC team in Santa Clarita could handle the UCLA womens team. Saugus is the same school that S. Murakami came from and that her sister is now running for.

Shannon was running fairly even or a little behind A. Kosinski of Oregon last year in HS meets. Look at the difference in today's race. Quite shocking, actually.

Some friends of mine and I, who live in the midwest have always called UCLA "Where good distance runners go to die." That may be unfair, but it sure seems like they get quality recruits year after year, and we rarely hear about development from any of them.

By the way, how good is the area around campus for training?

Training is great around UCLA: Check it out on google earth:

1) 8 mile grass median strip that is a runner's mecca on San Vincente and along the bluff to Santa Monica Pier

2) Will Rodgers Park and its near limitless trail possibilities

3) Mulholland Dr. rolling dirt road.

Tons of great places within a 20 mile radius (but traffic can make those drives into an hour)

Detailed thread on great running spots in LA:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1780310&thread=1780241

maybe they enjoy the college lifestyle a bit too much. I mean seriously, it's Los Angeles, California.

The Shackleton twins did run well today and have shown solid development from high school, where they were very good but a bit below the star level.

Rest of the team, not so much.

yea Jon Rankin sucked. horrible progress from hs to college. his prs only went from 1:59 to 1:47 and 4:10 to 3:55.. but yea nothing good comes out of ucla..

The men's program seems to be performing average at this point. And I believe someone hinted that Cybulski wants to transfer.

The women are aweful! They would get crushed by this year's Saugus HS girls team.

Petersen needs to be given his walking papers. How much longer can this go on?

A Saugus Perspective wrote:

The women are aweful!

"awful"

Jon Rankin - one good runner a team does not make. And he is ancient history. Didn't he graduate 2 or 3 years ago?

I guess its a good thing to have haters on UCLA, must mean we are doing something right. This is the first time in prob 20 years the team has been ranked in back to back seasons. Now if the cc team dosent make nationals we get flame posts... the program a while back was jost trying to get some individuals to the meet.

pew pew wrote:

This is the first time in prob 20 years the team has been ranked in back to back seasons.

This is exactly the problem that we are talking about. Thank you for providing the necessary confirmation with your "defense" of the program.

pew pew wrote:

yea Jon Rankin sucked. horrible progress from hs to college. his prs only went from 1:59 to 1:47 and 4:10 to 3:55.. but yea nothing good comes out of ucla..

Someone please do some research, Rankin ran around 4:10 for the 1600m in HS. 1:59 800m!!! This may be true, but he was a damn good miler in HS, and from my memory a pretty good XC runner as well.

Well, it's official. Men's team not going to Nats. Bad day in Westwood.

pew pew wrote:

I guess its a good thing to have haters on UCLA, must mean we are doing something right..

wtf does that even mean... if you weren't doing anything wrong there wouldn't be anything to hate on.

My roommate went on a recruiting trip there and supposedly Erik Peterson was talking down other schools programs (that have a far better reccord than theirs) and saying that they didnt develop people.... Come on

I remember last year when ucla fans were so excited over how they were going to do this year... top ten...

What happened guys?

(if your going to rob half the tallent in california at least do somthing with it)

didn't they qualify 3 girls individually to Nationals??