Tuesday, May 26, 1998
UCLA brings home the bacon from Farm
WOMEN’S TRACK: Bruins capture fourth Pac-10 title in five years,
dominating tourney
By Alvin Cadman
Daily Bruin Staff
PALO ALTO – The 1998 UCLA women’s track and field team took to
the road this Memorial Day weekend and hoped to make a run, as well
as a jump, vault and throw, at the Pac-10 Championships. They ended
up on a farm.
Make no mistake about it, their flight proceeded to the correct
destination.
Jeanette Bolden’s women’s squad arrived at Cobb Track and Angell
Field, on the campus of Stanford University, which is commonly
referred to as the Farm, in hopes of capturing a fourth conference
title in five years. Each member, focused and ready, went to work
to achieving the aforementioned goal.
The UCLA women won the 1998 Pac-10 Track and Field Championships
with a combined team score of 174 points. Meet host Stanford was
the runner-up when all was said and done, with a total score of 136
points. Southern California was third with 121 points. Washington,
ranked in the Top 25 on TrackWire’s national list, was fourth with
94 points. Oregon was next with 84 points, followed by Washington
State (76 1/2 points), Arizona State (61), Arizona (46 1/2), and
California (21).
On Saturday afternoon, UCLA’s most versatile thrower, senior
Rachelle Noble, captured the women’s hammer throw with a mark of
186-10. Freshman Jennifer Vail of USC was second with a throw of
179-8. UCLA sophomore Seilala Sua took third for the Bruins with a
mark of 175-5 to get UCLA off on the right foot. Noble set a meet
record , eclipsing the previous mark of 171-3 by Arizona’s Holly
Montana last year.
"I wish I could have thrown farther, but a Pac-10 title is a
Pac-10 title. I wanted to throw farther," said Noble, who holds the
Pac-10 record of 199-0. "You always want a personal record, so when
you don’t, you can’t be completely happy."
The throwing corps was not finished there. The women’s shot put
was closed out by the Bruins’ most lethal weapons. Seilala Sua
stood victorious with a throw of 56-10. Senior Nada Kawar followed
with a mark of 56-4 3/4 and Noble completed the sweep with a toss
of 48-9.
"Warming up, I felt good, but once the competition started,
everything slowed down. I felt the same way in the hammer," Noble
said. "I’m not happy I lost, but I am happy I lost to a teammate.
We did well as a team and we’ll be battling it out at nationals
too."
"This is a stepping stone," said Kawar, last year’s
champion.
In the women’s javelin, also on Saturday, Noble took runner-up
to Karis Howell of Oregon. UCLA’s answer to "Miss Can-Do-It-All"
finished with a throw of 159-11. Suzy Powell took fourth with a
mark of 152-3. She had previously held the Pac-10 lead in the event
and was the defending conference champion.
On Sunday, UCLA freshman Erica Hoernig took fourth in the
women’s pole vault with a jump of 11-9 3/4. This was the second
best vault of Hoernig’s career and improved upon her NCAA
provisional mark by exactly six inches.
UCLA defeated Washington State to capture the 400-meter relay
crown with a time of 44.25 seconds to the Cougars’ time of 45.18
seconds. The Bruin women took fourth in the final event of the
afternoon on Sunday with a 1600-meter relay time of 3:42.19. USC
won the event in a blazing time of 3:36.61.
The women’s 100 meter dash featured the head-to-head match-up of
UCLA freshman Shakedia Jones versus USC junior Tori Edwards. Both
women had won their respective trial heats on Saturday, with two
tenths of a second separating the two sprinters. On Sunday, Jones
produced a carbon-copy result of what she did to Edwards in
Westwood in the UCLA-USC-BYU meet.
The Illinois freshman cruised to victory with a time of 11.20
seconds, with Edwards hot on her heels at 11.26 seconds. The two
women were supposed to have met in the 200-meter later, but after
wrapping up the team title, Jones scratched from the latter race.
Edwards faced no heavy competition from the remaining field as she
won in 23.01 seconds.
"I got a good start and was able to maintain that consistency
and win the race," said Jones. "I am looking forward to running
well in the 100 and 200-meters at the NCAA Championships."
"I was disappointed Shakedia wasn’t in the (200-meter) race,"
Edwards said. "I wanted to go against her again."
The two will get another rematch against each other in two weeks
at the NCAA Outdoors.
Everyone in the Pac-10 conference knew that for the UCLA Bruins
to fare well this weekend and at the NCAA Outdoors, they would need
the valuable services of junior Joanna Hayes. After a scorching 13
second flat trial run in the 100-meter hurdles on Saturday and a
57.14 second race in the 400-meter hurdles, Hayes would meet
Natasha Danvers of USC in the finals on Sunday.
Hayes did not disappoint the record crowd at Cobb Track.
The UCLA junior defeated Danvers with a time of 13.15 seconds,
.17 faster than the USC’s best chance for a victory in the event.
Hayes gracefully got over every hurdle, but came up lame in the
final 10 meters and fell after she crossed the finish line. She was
quickly escorted off the track to be observed by medical personal,
who concluded Hayes had suffered a severe cramp. Hayes would later
comment that she will be ready for the NCAA Outdoors and that the
injury was minor. Danvers would easily obtain the 400-meter hurdle
title with a time of 58.01 seconds on Sunday afternoon.
UCLA’s Andrea Anderson won the 400-meters on Sunday with a time
of 52.52 seconds. She edged out Arizona sophomore Carolyn Jackson
(52.70 seconds) and USC freshman Carla Estes (53.94).
"I haven’t had steady workouts since the USC meet (due to an
injured right hamstring)," said Anderson. "I have had two practices
on the track and wanted to come out here and see where I was at. I
wanted to come out and win. I was not that interested in my
time."
In the women’s 5000-meters, UCLA sophomore Christina Bowen took
fourth with a time of 17:09.12. Arizona’s Amy Skieresz won the
event in a time of 15:47.64, three seconds off a personal best.
Stanford freshman and former high school prep star Julia Stamps
took second with a time of 16:35.38.
In the women’s discus, Washington’s Aretha Hill took first with
a Pac-10 Championships record throw of 208-11. Seilala Sua was
second with a mark of 204-10, with senior Suzy Powell placing third
with a throw of 185-7.
This is the Bruin women’s 10th conference title since 1985. They
have finished in the NCAA’s top three seven times since 1988.
DERRICK KUDO/Daily Bruin
Jenarta Jackson at a match earlier this month.