UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / Barbie Ludovise : Plier’s Running Success Has Surprised Even Her

A little more than a year ago, Caroline Plier stood at the bottom of a long, winding hill in Corona del Mar, nervously awaiting the start of her first workout with the UC Irvine women’s cross-country team.

Plier, then a UCI freshman from Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, had little experience with intense workouts. In high school, where she was an above-average--but not great--runner, practices were fun, and rarely painful.

But this particular hill, a 200-yard, zig-zagging wall of torture, was to be run 10 times, at full speed. A 10 on the Intense-o-meter. “We’d done hill workouts in high school, but here it was, well, serious, “ Plier said.

Worse, Plier, a walk-on, considered herself far out of the Anteaters’ league.

“They were all so good,” she said. “I thought maybe I’d be a drag on them, be the last one in all the workouts. I felt weird just being out there. I didn’t think I should be out there running with a college team. . . . I really wasn’t anybody.”

Today, Plier, a sophomore, is the No. 3 runner for Irvine, the nation’s seventh-ranked team. This season, she has outrun some of the country’s best, including UCLA’s Melissa Sutton, a former Southern Section champion from Newbury Park, and UCLA freshman Kira Jorgensen, a two-time national high school champion.

Saturday, Irvine, which won the Big West Conference title two weeks ago, will compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Region 8 championships at Woodward Park in Fresno. The top two teams will advance to the NCAA championships Nov. 20 at Annapolis, Md.

Although Irvine has been led all season by the one-two punch of senior Brigid Stirling and junior Buffy Rabbitt, Plier (pronounced PLEER) has had just as much to do with the Anteaters’ success, Coach Vince O’Boyle says.

“I think in any year, you have surprises,” “ O’Boyle said. “She obviously was a very good surprise for us.”

Plier, who said she didn’t really take running seriously until her senior year in high school, said her prep running years were fun, but not nearly as satisfying as they’ve been in college.

“In high school, if I started hurting, I’d slow down,” she said. “Now I say, ‘Hey, the girl next to me is hurting, too, so keep going.’ I was competitive before, but I said, ‘Who cares? It’s not worth the pain.’ But now it feels good to work really hard, to push yourself and see what you can really do if you work at it.”

But in the beginning, Plier’s low self-confidence was playing havoc with her running. “I was scared to come out--I didn’t think I’d make the team,” she said. “Making the team was the biggest surprise for me. Last year, I was really scared before each race. I would feel really tired. I’d say ‘Oh, I’ve never felt so tired before a race before. I’m dead!’ I didn’t feel confident at all.”

But after a few races, Plier not only discovered that she had a place on the team, but that she had potential far greater than her initial expectations. In last year’s Big West Championships, she was the first freshman to finish, placing fifth. And at the NCAA regional meet, she was Irvine’s top runner, placing 16th overall.

“In the first race, I really surprised myself,” Plier said. “I almost couldn’t believe I was up there. Vince would always say, ‘Trust me. You can do it.’ But it took a while before I believed him.”

Irvine’s water polo team is still ranked second in the nation, despite losing to No. 8 USC, 9-8, Saturday. Cal is the nation’s top-ranked team.

Tonight at 7, Irvine (21-5 overall, 5-1 in conference) plays at Long Beach. Saturday, the Anteaters play host to Fresno State. Sunday, they host third-ranked Pepperdine, the conference leader, at Heritage Park in Irvine.

Anteater Notes

Next year, the men’s basketball team will play in two nationally acclaimed tournaments: the Great Alaskan Shoot Out and the Tennessee-Chattanooga tournament, as well as at Maryland. . . . Soccer players Shawn Bullock, Darren Bedolla and Kevin Smith were named to the all-Big West conference teams Monday. Bullock, a first-team selection at midfielder, is Irvine’s career assist leader with 19. Bedolla and Smith were named to the second team. . . . The doubles team of Trevor Kronemann and Shige Kanroji is the No. 1-seeded squad for the Rolex ITCA regional tennis championships, which begin today at Irvine.