UCLA senior Mebrahtom Keflezighi (Ma-bra-tum Kef-lez-gee) on Monday (Nov. 24) won the 1997 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship, held on the Furman University Golf Course in Greenville, SC and hosted by Furman University.

Keflezighi set a course record over the 10,000m, placing first in a time of 28:54. He's the first Bruin (man or women) to win the NCAA cross country title. It's Keflezighi's fourth NCAA individual championship in 1997. At the NCAA Indoor meet last winter, he won the 5,000m and last spring at the NCAA Outdoor, he won both the 5,000m and 10,000m races. Placing second in the men's race was Michigan's Kevin Sullivan (29:01), third was Washington State's Barnard Lagat (29:05), Colorado's Adam Goucher was fourth (29:10) and Arkansas' Ryan Wilson was fifth (29:13). Lagat defeated Keflezighi three weeks ago at the Pacific-10 Championship but Keflezighi defeated Lagat 10 days ago at the Western Regionals. "Ryan Wilson took the lead fast," said Keflezighi, who prepped at San Diego HS. "I was feeling good and was just trying to keep the pace. I knew I needed to keep up in front. We knew the goal for this one was to be on top. I got out the way I wanted, I had a great start and I knew I needed to keep the pace. I knew at the last mile that I had won the championship."

"It was spectacular, really spectacular," said Bob Larsen, in his 19th season as the Bruin men's cross country coach. " The early pace was fast and Meb went out with the leaders. The first mile was around 4:30 and about 9:11 for the first two miles. Wilson was leading and Meb and Lagat were out there with him.. Meb and Lagat then overtook Wilson, and with about a mile-and-a-quarter to go, Meb ran away from Lagat. At the end, Meb had it clearly won, with Sullivan, Lagat, Goucher and Wilson fighting for second place.

"It was a great and powerful performance," Larsen said. "Meb's classic, smooth, relaxed style never broke down, he never tightened up. Coaches were saying this was one of the best men's field ever. Meb dominated the last mile-and-a-quarter and that impressed everyone."

In team scoring, in the men's division, Stanford repeated as NCAA champion, with 53 points, ahead of Arkansas (56), Colorado (108), Michigan (116) and Wisconsin (201). In women's team scoring, Brigham Young won with 100 points, defeating defending champion Stanford (the Cardinal was second with 102 points). Behind BYU and Stanford in women's team scoring were Colorado (178), Dartmouth (205) and Wisconsin (227). In the women's 5,000m race, Villanova's Carrie Tollefson won the title in 16:29, defeating defending champion, Arizona's Amy Skieresz, who placed second in 16:39.