By Moin Salahuddin
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA men’s track and field team members took one step
closer toward their imminent goal.
After sending a small contingent of athletes to the
California-Nevada Track and Field championships last weekend, the
Bruins can now shift focus onto their annual dual meet with
crosstown rival USC Saturday.
“We’ve been looking forward to facing the
Trojans,” UCLA head coach Art Venegas said. “Now,
we’re only a couple of days away.”
Despite having only a dozen athletes making it to the finals of
their events for the two-day meet, UCLA finished fourth with a
point total of 68. Fresno State edged host California-Berkeley for
the men’s title as Long Beach State finished a distant
third.
“This meet was great for some of our athletes who needed a
little more competition before the USC meet and Pac-10
championships,” Venegas said.
Individual winners for the Bruins were sophomores Scott Moser in
the discus and Joe Franklin in the javelin.
“Both Moser and Franklin did impressively,” said
Venegas, who also is the UCLA throwing coach.
Moser easily captured the discus title after heaving the disc
190-3. Bruin teammate Scott Wiegand finished sixth with a toss of
162-5.
In the shot put competition, Moser could not overcome the 60-1
heave by Cal State Northridge’s Billy Bush. The sophomore had
to settle for a second place finish with his 58-4.50 mark.
Jack Clamon placed sixth with a heave of 56-3.75 while Wiegand
was close behind with a throw of 55-1.50.
Moser completed his trifecta with a 168-7 heave in the hammer
throw event.
“I’m very happy with how our throwers are
doing,” Venegas said. “We lost three of our best to
graduation but Moser, Wiegand, and Clamon have stepped right in
their places.”
Franklin, who had been in the shadow of fellow javelin thrower
Nate Marum, had a phenomenal weekend. The sophomore threw the
javelin a season-best 209-6 to win the title and give his squad ten
points.
“Joe is such a great asset for this team,” Venegas
said. “He’s going to make some noise in the
Pac-10s.”
Marum placed fourth with a throw of 204-5, nearly 20 feet off of
his personal best.
Also performing remarkably for UCLA was Narc Narcisse. The
sophomore placed fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles, with a
season-best clocking of 14.81.
Narcisse later came back to finish third in the long jump, with
an impressive 24-2 1/2 leap. Cal’s Robert Kennedy won with a
24-10 jump.
In another jumping related event, pole vaulter Brian McLaughlin
continued his dominant season by placing third overall. His leap of
17-4 1/2 fell only six inches short of winning the vaulting
title.
“I’ve been jumping well lately,” the senior
said. “But I’m looking forward to competing against
USC.”
In the sprinting events, Tom Johnson blazed to a 47.89 clocking
in the 400 meters while teammate Kyle Erickson ran impressively for
his fifth place finish in the 400 intermediate hurdles. Erickson
sped to a 52.79 season-best performance.
“Both of these athletes have been improving
tremendously,” sprint coach John Smith said.
While Moser and Franklin did capture individual titles, the meet
might not have been as crucial to that throwing duo and as it was
for steeplechaser Matt Pitts.
Pitts needed to break 9-minutes, 20 seconds in the 3000-meter
steeplechase to qualify for the Pac-10 Championships and succeeded,
placing seventh with a time of 9:19.09. Sophomore Omar Hart
finished in a personal best of 9:40.03.
“We’re gearing up to face them,” Smith said of
facing the Trojans Saturday at Drake Stadium. “I can’t
wait to see if we can continue the streak ““ 21 consecutive
wins and counting.”