By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Under the hot Sacramento sun, Bruins, both graduated and
current, will take the UCLA tradition to the next level. The
Olympic trials, starting this week from July 14-23, represent a
culmination of a lifetime of hard work.
With nine current Bruins and as many as 17 alums vying for a
spot, the blue and gold will be well represented against the
nation’s best.
“The trials bring out the best and worst
performances,” said women’s track and field head coach
Jeanette Bolden. “I’m glad that our athletes are
getting a chance to compete at a higher level.”
Like the 2000 Bruin squads, UCLA is predominantly represented in
field events. They will compete in nine field events: men’s
and women’s discus, men’s and women’s shot put,
women’s pole vault, women’s high jump, women’s
hammer throw, women’s triple jump and men’s javelin.
Bruins will also complete in seven running events: the men’s
100 meters, men’s and women’s 200m, men’s
10,000m, men’s 800m, women’s 100m, women’s 100m
hurdles, and women’s 400m hurdles. Each event will take only
the top three in the U.S.
A handful of the events will feature face-offs between different
generations of Bruins. In the 100m dash, senior Shekedia Jones will
face alum Gail Devers.
Jones, who placed fifth in the NCAA championships despite
suffering from a strained hamstring, is entered as No. 14 for the
trials with her time of 11.23 seconds which she ran at the NCAA
meet.
Devers, who entered 2000 ranked fifth in the world in the 100m,
is third in the nation with a time of 10.94. Devers has been at the
top of world competition through the ’90s and earned the
World Outdoor title in the 100m in 1993 and the 100m hurdles in
1993, 1995 and 1999.
Most of the alumni throwers who will be competing at the trials,
are members of the Reebok Bruin track club coached by Art Venegas,
the throwing coach and men’s head coach.
John Godina, who graduated in ’95, is atop the shot put
list with his mark of 72-3. He is ranked second on the trials list
with his mark of 226-6.
Godina has dominated the shot put competition recently, and won
World outdoor titles in 1997 and 1995.
He raked in NCAA shot put titles in his final two years as a
Bruin in 1994 and 1995. Having already won a silver medal in the
shot put in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Godina enters the
trials with valuable experience under his belt.
Also competing in the throwing circle is Seilala Sua, the
athlete with the most wins in UCLA track and field history, a
four-time outdoor discus champion and both the 2000 indoor and
outdoor shot put champion.
Sua is currently sixth in the world in the discus and enters the
trials in third with a mark of 212-3. She is behind second-place
Powell’s throw of 214-3.
“I’m excited,” Sua said. “My training is
starting to come on, so it’s making things more fun, and
I’m feeling a lot better.”
Coming on strong in the shot put will be junior Christina Tolson
and Chaniqua Ross.
Tolson, who will compete in both the shot put and hammer throw,
has had a season of ups and downs, but with her 2000 Pac-10 hammer
throw crown and her second-place finish in the shot put, Tolson
will be ready to perform in the face of pressure.
“They’re ready to throw. They’re not in this
late season slump,” said Venegas.
“They’re throwing better than ever.
“Nobody feels that they’re winding down.
They’re picking up the steam. There’s so much energy, I
can feel it,” he continued.
Tracy O’Hara, currently fifth in the world, has a shot at
the pole vault team. Barely missing the world record of 15-1
earlier in the season, O’Hara has a chance to be the first
UCLA member of the USA women’s pole vault squad. As the 2000
Indoor and Outdoor champion, she has been training hard for over
half a year.
“It’s been a very long season, and I know that
they’re looking to get this meet out of the way,” pole
vault coach Anthony Curran said.
“They’re all fired up, though, and it depends on
that day.”
Track and field is decided in a single race, or throw, or jump.
Anything can happen. It leaves an element of surprise with each and
every event.
The trials offer athletes, both veteran and rookie, a ticket to
the next level. Highlighted by performances of a lifetime and
painful defeats, the Olympic trials is the next step in the career
for some, and a dream come true for everyone who makes it that
far.
BRUIN QUALIFIERS FOR TRACK AND FIELD TRIALS
Current and former UCLA athletes to compete in 2000 Olympic Trials,
held in Sacramento from July 14-23. Amy Acuff
(1997) – High Jump Andrea Anderson (1999) – 400m
Gentry Bradley (1996) – 200m Sheila
Burrell (1995) – Heptathalon Gail Devers
(1998) – 100m,100mH Dave Dumble (1997) – Discus
Dawn Dumble (1995) – Shot Put, Discus John
Godina (1995) – Shot Put, Discus Darnesha
Griffith (Sophomore) – High Jump Joanna
Hayes (1999) – 400mH Erica Hoernig
(Junior) – Pole Vault Josh Johnson (1998) –
Javelin Shakedia Jones (Junior) – 100m, 200m
Mebrahtom Keflezighi (1998) – 10,000m
Michael Marsh (1989) – 100m Tracy
O’Hara (Sophomore) – Pole Vault Michelle
Perry (Junior) – 100mH, 400mH Suzy Powell
(1998) – Discus Chaniqua Ross (Sophomore) – Shot
Put, Discus Heather Sickler (Sophomore) – Pole
Vault Deana Simmons (Sophomore) – Triple Jump
Scott Slover (1998) – Pole Vault Jess
Strutzel (2000) – 800m Seilala Sua (2000)
– Discus Luke Sullivan (1999) – Discus
Christina Tolson (Junior) – Shot Put, Hammer Throw
SOURCE: Sports Information
Original graphic by CONNIE WU/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Web adaptation by CHRISTINE TAN