By Moin Salahuddin
Daily Bruin Staff
When UCLA men’s track and field sprinter Malachi Davis
injured his hamstring in the 400-meter relay before the
team’s meet against USC, the Bruins could have thrown in the
towel.
Davis was a critical part of UCLA’s success, and without
the senior racing in the open 400 meters or in the 1600-meter
relay, the Trojans went from slight to overwhelming favorites to
win the annual dual meet and snapping the Bruins’ 21-meet
winning streak.
But UCLA sprinting coach John Smith wasn’t discouraged by
the unexpected injury.
“Oh well, it ain’t over yet,” he said.
“USC better have a good day if they want to beat
us.”
Little would anyone have known that Smith would be right, as the
Bruins extended their winning streak to 22 over their crosstown
rivals with a dramatic rally at the end of the meet to prevail,
88-75, in front of 5,463 at Drake Stadium.
“When you have a meet like this, you have to look for
miracles to happen and we had to pull one out,” Smith said.
“We had to have people to step up. That’s what this
meet is about.
“You come here, and you come alive,” he added.
The Bruins came alive at the most crucial moment of the meet
““ the 200 meters. Judged as the turning point in the contest,
UCLA’s Damian Allen and Bryan Harrison surprisingly finished
one-two in the sprint, ahead of Trojan All-American Sultan
McCullough.
The Bruins’ eight points in the event, coupled with a
1-2-3 sweep of the 5000 meters, and Scott Moser’s victory in
the discus clinched the win.
“Track is one big emotion, one big moment,” said
Allen, who ran 20.97 to defeat Harrison by one-hundredth of a
second. “If you feel it, it takes you far. Training or not
training, if you got it in your head, just let it fly on the
track.”
After not scoring in the 100 meters, Harrison noted that he
needed to make up the points somewhere to ensure that the streak
would continue.
“When I saw Damian off the turn in the lead, I knew we
were going one-two at that point,” Harrison said.
“Hopefully, we took a little heart out of them.”
After the dramatic finish in the 200 meters, UCLA swept the 5000
meters behind a ferocious day from junior Paul Muite. As Bruin head
coach Art Venegas yelled on for a sweep, Muite captured the event
in 14:55.85 after placing second in the 1500 meters earlier in the
day. Senior Dan Brecht placed second while sophomore Bryan Green
completed the Bruin trifecta.
“I feel like 11 + 11 is 22 and 22 is the number of years
we’ve kicked their asses in a row,” Muite said.
“I don’t hate ‘SC but I don’t love them
either.”
“And I think it’s going to take a lot more than just
having good times on paper and coming to UCLA to beat us,” he
added. “It’s going to take a lot of heart, a lot of
effort, and a team.”
Sophomore Scott Moser came into the discus competition as the
favorite to win the event and left with the best throw of the
afternoon. Moser heaved the disc 190-feet-10 inches to win the
event by more than 12 feet. Bruin teammate Scott Wiegand finished
third.
“Oh man, this is better that it was last year,”
Moser said. “Because last year we weren’t supposed to
win, and this year we really weren’t supposed to win and we
just came through.”
With the meet’s outcome already secured, the Trojans
showed their frustration during the final event of the day, the
1600-meter relay. USC All-American Felix Sanchez taunted
UCLA’s Terrence Williams over the final 20 meters of their
anchor leg and the Trojan squad was subsequently disqualified for
unsportsmanlike conduct.
That slight blemish could not overshadow the surprising and
dominating Bruin performances on Saturday.
Coming into the pole vault competition, USC’s Dennis
Kholev was heavily favored to defeat UCLA’s Brian McLaughlin
and Steve Michels. With Michels out with a hamstring injury, the
Bruins defied all odds and finished first and second in the event.
McLaughlin cleared 17-2 3/4 to win while teammate Jared Drake gave
UCLA three crucial points with his second place finish at 16-8 3/4.
Kholev failed to clear any height on the breezy day.
“That was completely unexpected,” McLaughlin said of
outscoring USC 8-1 in the event. “We stole a lot of points
right there.”
UCLA also garnered the top two spots in the javelin competition
with Nate Marum and Joe Franklin. Marum, a freshman, obliterated
the field with his throw of 210-4. Franklin, a junior, finished
second with a throw of 192-11.
“I didn’t want to be the first year to lose to
‘SC,” Marum said. “I mean, we’ve been
winning since before I was born.”
Part of UCLA’s success can be attributed to the distance
events, where the Bruins outscored the Trojans 34-2.
UCLA swept the 5000 meters, the 3000-meter steeplechase behind
Mason Moore and finished one-two in both the 800 and 1500-meter
races.
But the Bruins had expected to sweep USC from the 800 meters on
up.
“We still have a shot,” All-American Jess Strutzel
said after the 1500. “I don’t know. We’ll see
what happens.”
What happened has become routine lately for the Bruins. In last
year’s competition at USC, UCLA came back late in the meet
and defeated their archrival 82-81.
And this year was no different as breaks kept going the
Bruins’ way. USC entered as dominant favorites in both the
pole vault and the 200 meters but left being outscored a combined
16-2 in the events.
With the loss, the Trojans still lead the all-time series 38-29
but have not defeated UCLA since 1977.
“What a terrific way to finish the dual meet
season,” said distance coach Bob Larsen in his final home
meet of an illustrious 22-year coaching career with UCLA.
“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” he
added.