Friday, May 8, 1998
UCLA ready to divide and conquer California
MENS TRACK Team travels to Modesto, Occidental prior to
championships
By Donald Morrison
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 8 men’s track team, after defeating cross-town rival USC
for the 20th time in a row last Saturday, will now begin its quest
for a sixth Pac-10 Championship in seven years.
To prepare for the Pac-10 Championships, which will be held in
two weeks at Stanford, the team will split up this weekend and send
a slew of athletes to the Modesto Invitational in Modesto, Calif.,
and send distance runners to the Occidental Invitational in Eagle
Rock, Calif.
Traveling up north to Modesto will be throwers, jumpers and
sprinters.
Luke Sullivan, after setting personal bests in the hammer throw
and shot put last weekend, will try to break his personal record of
204 feet, 7 inches in the discus. Sullivan has already qualified
for the NCAA Championships, and has the fifth-best mark in the
country.
Wade Tift and Travis Haynes will try their luck at the shot put.
Tift is looking to improve on his seasonal best mark of 61-10 1/4,
and Haynes will try to move up from seventh on the national list.
He is one of the favorites to win the event.
Josh Johnson might enter the javelin competition up in Modesto.
He owns a seasonal best mark of 236-10 and is ranked fifth in the
country. Joe Franklin also might compete in the javelin. He set a
personal record by throwing 215-10 against USC.
After not having the performances they wanted against USC, the
sprint corps will look to regain form and try to win the major
sprint events.
"The sprinters are irritated that they couldn’t do what they
wanted to do in some instances (against USC and BYU)," head coach
Bob Larsen said. "A couple of guys were hurt, and some guys had to
sit and watch."
Jim McElroy will lead the sprinters into battle. McElroy spent
last week in Chicago, Ill., training with the Chicago Bears, the
team he recently signed with.
Football players Akil Davis and Damian Allen will run, as will
Jacob Glickman and Brandon Thomas. The group might form a
4×100-meter relay team. If they do, UCLA would have to be the
favorite in the event.
Scott Slover will be the favorite to win the pole vault. Slover
set a UCLA-USC dual-meet record by clearing 18-1. He is second in
the nation behind Jacob Davis of Texas, who cleared 19-4 1/4.
Jumping will be Mel Moultry and Rich Pitchford. Moultry will
compete in the triple jump, and attempt to follow up the personal
best performance he had last weekend. Moultry jumped 53-1 3/4,
vaulting himself into eighth in the nation.
Pitchford, after coming back from early season injuries, will
compete in the high jump, and looks to get over seven feet.
Staying down in Southern California will be a group of middle
and long distance runners. Michael Granville, after coming back
from a hamstring injury, will run the 800-meters. Granville ran 1
minute, 48.37 seconds last week to finish second and provisionally
qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Mark Hauser, after running a lifetime and UCLA-USC dual meet
best of 3:41.97 in the 1,500-meters, could compete in the
800-meters with Granville.
Matt Olin and Will Bernaldo will run the 1,500-meters Saturday
on a fast Occidental track. Dan Brecht will compete in the
3,000-meter steeplechase, and Paul Muite will hope to set a
personal record in the 5,000-meters.
Taking the week off are Jess Strutzel and Mebrahtom Keflezighi.
Keflezighi and Strutzel have both qualified for the NCAA
Championships. Keflzighi qualified in the 5,000 and 10,000-meters,
and Strutzel qualified in the 800-meters.
The team hopes that results from this weekend and next give them
added confidence heading into the Pac-10 Championships.
"Doing well helps," Larsen said. "But (the team) has plenty of
incentive.
"USC won it last year by seven points, and (UCLA) is going to be
aware of trying get there and do their best."