DAILY BRUIN FILE PHOTO Senior Steve
Michaels clears the bar in the pole vault.
By Glen Worthington
Daily Bruin Contributor
While the rest of the student body is busy cramming for finals,
the UCLA men’s track team heads north this weekend for their
first conference meet of the 2001 outdoor track season.
The four-way meet between California, Washington, Washington
State and the Bruins takes place this Saturday at Berkeley.
The Bruins are bound to face stiff competition, and UCLA
Men’s Head Coach Art Venegas predicts a close meet.
“There are matchups across the board,” he said.
“We’ll have to be at our best. There’s talent
everywhere.”
Venegas hopes that the team will rise to the occasion. In any
case, he says, “It will be a good test.”
Coming off a strong indoor showing, there is a lot of hope for
the outdoor track season. The Bruins performed well at the MPSF
Indoor Championships with 12 top-five finishes in the field and
distance events.
The team looks for continued strong performances by senior
pole-vaulter Steve Michaels, freshman triple- and long-jumper
Oliver Jackson and throwers freshman Dan Ames and junior Scott
Moser. Senior hurdler John Hall and junior distance runner Bryan
Green are expected to provide leadership in their respective events
as well.
But many athletes still need to prove themselves.
“Our indoor season was very limited,” Venegas said.
“We have a lot of freshman this year. We wanted to rest our
runners and let them concentrate on school this year.”
And according to sprint coach John Smith, this weekend will be
an opportunity for the team to come together.
“We haven’t had a meet together so now were going to
have to gel ourselves,” he said. “We’re going to
be in their backyard, so we have work to do well.”
“The only thing I can do is prepare them in practice and
get us ready. We’ll see what they’re made of,”
Smith added.
UCLA’s men’s team is young and hopes to establish
themselves this year and build for the future.
“We’ll have a very good team this year, and a great
team by next year,” Venegas said.
Venegas cites strong recruiting this year as a factor that will
lead to continued Bruin success and Smith concurs.
“I have a good group of young people that are going to do
some fantastic things in the future,” Smith said.
But what about this meet? What attitude are the Bruins taking to
their first conference competition?
“This is a conference meet,” Smith said. “This
is serious.”