Monday, March 16, 1998
Bruins run, jump, throw their way to respectable NCAA finish
UCLA hangs on for 19th place as Texas rounds up national powers
for victory
By Alvin Cadman
Daily Bruin Contributor
The day after the UCLA women’s basketball team defeated Michigan
in the 1998 NCAA Tournament and on the eve before the men would do
the same, the UCLA women’s track and field team had six of its
finest competing at the 1998 NCAA Indoor Championships.
In Indianapolis, Ind., the Bruin women were challenged and fared
well against the best in the nation from top track programs
including Louisiana State University, which had won the last five
track championships – until Saturday.
Texas won its fourth women’s crown since 1986, stopping LSU’s
run of five in a row. Texas’ blazing sprinting corps, led by
Suziann Reid, carried the Longhorns to victory with 60 points.
Reid, the top women’s 400 runner in the country entering the
meet, didn’t disappoint, winning in 52.57 seconds, the fastest time
this season in the event. This all but ended LSU’s hopes for a
sixth consecutive title and ninth in 12 years.
LSU finished second in the team standings with 30 points, and
Pittsburgh and Stanford tied for third with 26 each.
UCLA finished tied for 19th along with the Lady Tar Heels from
North Carolina, each earning 11 points.
In the women’s 200 meters, UCLA’s Shakedia Jones placed eighth
with a time of 23.78 seconds, 16 hundredths of a second off her
personal best and one-hundredth of a second off her qualifying time
for the NCAA Indoors. Lakeisha Backus of Texas won the race with a
time of 23.18 seconds.
In the women’s pole vault, Melissa Price of Fresno State broke
her college record in the pole vault by three-quarters of an inch,
soaring 13-10.
Redshirt freshman Erica Hoernig of UCLA took sixth with a vault
of 12-1. This is a personal best for Hoernig and shatters her
provisional indoor qualifying mark by over 3 inches.
In the women’s triple jump, UCLA’s Deana Simmons took sixth
place with a jump of 43-7, almost 3 inches more than her indoor
qualifying mark. This leap is also 3 inches longer than her
personal best at the Pan-American Junior Games in Havana, Cuba,
last year.
Pittsburgh’s Trecia Smith completed a double in the women’s
horizontal jumps. She adds this triple jump title to the long jump
championship she won Friday night with a leap of 46-1.
Her top jump is the best by a collegian this year.
Coming from the women’s throwing events, Rachelle Noble took
seventh in the women’s 20-pound weight throw with a mark of 64-1,
over 2 inches farther than her indoor qualifying throw.
In the shot put, UCLA sophomore Seilala Sua earned seventh place
with a throw of 54-5. Following behind Sua was senior Nada Kawar,
whose top throw of the afternoon was 51-9.
The Bruin women will now gear up for a dual meet next weekend at
Drake Stadium against California, Air Force and UC Irvine.
The following weekend, the UCLA women’s track and field team
will travel to Northern California and compete in the prestigious
Stanford Invitational.