Friday, 5/23/97 Bruins hope to run conference streak to six
M.TRACK: Top athletes heighten competition at Pac-10
Championships
By Emmanuelle Ejercito Daily Bruin Staff Six years in a row. No,
it’s not the UCLA football team’s current streak against its
crosstown rival. Six in a row is the number of years that the UCLA
men’s track and field team will hopefully own the Pac-10 conference
crown should it come away with a victory this weekend in Seattle at
the Pac-10 Championships. "It’s not your team against another team,
but so many teams and so many individuals," UCLA head coach Bob
Larsen said. "We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out, but I
think we’ve go a good chance of defending our five titles in a row
here." The only thing standing between the Bruins and another
conference title are the eight other conference teams. But the team
that may give UCLA a run for its money (or in this case, title) are
the Trojans of USC. UCLA’s strength lies in the throwing events.
The Bruins lead the Pac-10 in the shot put, discus and the javelin.
With the top eight finishers in each category scoring, the shot and
the discus should provide a major source of points for UCLA as the
Bruins have four athletes in each event ranked in the top eight.
During the UCLA-USC dual meet, UCLA edged the Trojans 88-75. UCLA
dominated the field and distance events against SC, while the
Trojan advantage was in the sprints. However it was UCLA’s success
in the sprints that provided the key to its triumph. Several Bruin
sprinters, notably Damian Allen, Randy Brookes and Jim McElroy,
stepped up their performances and prevented a USC sweep in the
sprint events. The Bruins must have another good showing in the
sprints to effectively put away USC at the conference
championships. But this time they may have to do it without
freshman Brookes. Brookes, who had set a personal best of 10.44 in
the 100 meters at USC and ranks second in the conference in the
event, suffered a slight hamstring pull two weeks ago at the
Modesto Invitational. Though trainers believe that Brookes should
be ready to run by Saturday, the coaches plan to be careful. "(His
hamstring) is a little tender yet," Larsen said. "If we take him up
there, we will be cautious and have him warm up, try the qualifying
rounds and see how it feels." The Bruins have two returning Pac-10
individual champions competing for them this year. Junior Scott
Slover, who won the pole vault last year, will be the favorite to
win it again this year. Slover leads the conference and the nation
in the event. However, California’s Clarence Phelps should provide
tough competition for Slover. So far this season, Phelps has
cleared 18-5 1/4, good enough for second in the Pac-10. Last year,
Oregon almost prevented the Bruins from winning their fifth
straight conference title, but junior Mebrahtom Keflezighi took the
5,000 to help put UCLA over the top. A repeat this year seems
inevitable, as Keflezighi is the national leader in the 5,000, but
he will also compete in the 1,500. Keflezighi will have to run a
qualifying heat in the 1,500 on Saturday and both the 1,500 and
5,000 finals on Sunday. "That’s a pretty tough double for him,"
Larsen said. "Those things change how a person is going to compete
because a lot of these guys will be doing two events – how strong
they will be towards the end of the second day we’ll have to wait
and see." Because the Bruins did not participate in the Pac-10
decathlon last week, they will enter this weekend’s competition
already trailing in the scores. California is in the lead with 20
points, followed by Arizona (8), Oregon (5), Washington (3) and
Stanford (2). Cal’s Ross Bomben won the decathlon. Related Links:
NCAA