Friday, 5/9/97 Bruins divide up talent in upcoming invitationals
Contests to determine qualifying marks for members
By Emmanuelle Ejercito Daily Bruin Staff The UCLA men’s track
and field team is splitting up this weekend. The Bruin distance
corps will head off to the Occidental Invitational while the
throwers, vaulters and sprinters will head up to the Modesto
Invitational. With the Pac-10 Championships and the NCAA Outdoor
Championships looming not too far ahead, the Modesto Invitational
is one of the last chances for some throwers to earn automatic
qualifying marks. "One of the reasons that we go to Modesto is that
most of the top throwers on the West Coast are in the meet," UCLA
throwing coach Art Venegas said. "So we get to have good
competition which at this time of the year becomes real important."
In the shot put, UCLA already has one automatic qualifier. Wade
Tift threw a personal best of 61 feet, 11 1/2 inches at the Mt. SAC
Relays surpassing the automatic qualifying requirement of 61-8 1/4.
Travis Haynes has had an impressive indoor season, placing fourth
in the NCAA Indoor Championships by throwing 61-10 1/2. However in
the outdoor season, Haynes’ season best is a over a foot off the
automatic qualifying mark. Though his season-best of 60-2 is good
enough to provisionally qualify, Haynes is on the bubble. He ranks
17th in the nation, and the NCAA only takes the top 18. Haynes is
also a provisional qualifier in the discus. "Travis has been really
training well. I just think that he needs to relax at the meet and
it will come," Venegas said. "He’s really looking good in practice,
then he tries a little too hard in the meets. He has to relax more
and the effort will create a big performance, a fluid effort is
what he needs." Luke Sullivan, who missed 3 1/2 weeks of
competition due to a back ailment, threw the discus for the first
time at the USC meet. Though his throw of 174-5 was almost 20 feet
less than his season-best mark, Venegas is optimistic of Sullivan’s
progress. Sullivan heads the provisional list of qualifiers at
192-0 and was 1 foot, 7 inches away from the automatic mark. "(He
had) very modest beginnings at ‘SC but we expect him that he’ll
bounce back real nicely this weekend," Venegas said. The cool
evening and still winds at Occidental make for a favorable
environment for the distance runners. Though junior Mebrahtom
Keflezighi will most likely not run this weekend due to a cold,
there will be some runners there gunning for Pac-10 qualifying
marks. Matt Olin, who set a personal record in the 3,000
steeplechase of 9:14.4 in last week’s USC meet, is scheduled to run
in the 5,000. However, Olin may run the steeplechase in an attempt
to meet the conference qualifying mark of 9:09.14. Related Links:
NCAA Men’s Track