UCI cross country teams take a run at Stanford

The UC Irvine women’s cross country team began its season with a convincing victory, while the Anteaters’ men were diverted by a wrong turn.

Three weeks later, both resume action today at the Stanford Invitational. Coach Vince O’Boyle’s women’s team, picked by coaches to finish second in the Big West Conference behind UC Santa Barbara, are led by junior Laura Olvera, an All-West Region performer last season.

Olvera, second at the Big West meet, third at the West Regional and 83rd at the NCAA championships in 2006, was second overall to lead the Anteaters to a dominating victory at the season-opening Asics/UCI Invitational Sept. 8.

Olvera, whose strong work ethic and mental toughness are mirrored by the rest of the roster this season, according to O’Boyle, helped the Anteaters produce 41 team points in the opener, 41 better than runner-up Loyola Marymount.

Others expected to help UCI contend for the women’s conference crown, which UCI won in 2005, are junior Candice Proctor, junior Samantha Constantini, senior Sara Mickelson, senior Amber Gordon, junior Kendall Bruton and freshman Katherine Nielson.

Mickelson was third in the conference finals last season, while Proctor, who redshirted last season due to shin splints, finished 11th in the Big West meet in 2005.

Constantini has been stepping up this fall, according to O’Boyle, who returned recently from the two teams’ annual training camp in Big Bear.

The UCI women are ranked No. 9 in the West Region.

The UCI men’s team, paced by sophomore Colin Hacker, had difficulty navigating the inaugural event on the Anteater Recreation Center Fields, and wound up eighth. Hacker was 15th among 195 runners that day, on a course arranged quickly after a scheduling conflict at Huntington Central Park.

Senior Sky Johnston and sophomore Rusty Whisman are additional cogs for O’Boyle’s men’s team, picked to finish fourth in the conference coaches’ preseason poll.

Johnston finished 30th at the Big West Conference meet last fall. He qualified for the NCAA West Regional in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in track and field last spring.

Senior Tim Hearst and junior Nick Mosey are also expected to contribute, while promising freshmen Aman Bhatia and Victor Bonilla could begin filling voids left by the loss of several talented runners from last season.

— Barry Faulkner