Daily Bruin File Photo Sophomore Jack
Clamon finished second in this weekend’s meet at Drake
Stadium. UCLA 213.5 Washington State 181 Cal 154.5
Washington 123
By Glen Worthington
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA men’s track team began its outdoor season with
two huge successes. Over spring break the team won quadrangular
meets away at Berkeley and at home in Drake Stadium with many Bruin
athletes establishing new personal bests. From distance races to
sprints to field events, the team is beginning to prove itself.
Men’s Head Coach Art Venegas had good reason to be wary
about the past two competitions.
“I was worried about finals,” he said.
The Bruins, however, were not hindered by studying before the
Berkeley meet. Neither were they too worn out from finals before
Saturday’s home meet.
On March 17, the Bruins faced stiff competition up North in a
quad meet against Cal, Washington and Washington State. The team
wanted to redeem its losses to Cal and Washington last year.
This year, the story was different. The Bruins scored 213.5
points to Washington State’s 181, Cal’s 154.5 and
Washington’s 123.
“It was an overwhelming victory against all three
teams,” Venegas said. “We stepped it up and everyone
did great.”
Junior Scott Moser won both the shot put (62 feet, 4 inches) and
the discus (191-11). Rodney Diggs won the 400-meter dash (47.63
seconds), Nick Thorton won the 800m run (1 minute 53.37 seconds),
Kyle Erickson won the 400m hurdles (51.26), Mason Moore won the
3000m steeplechase (9:05.40) and Brian Green won the 5,000m run
(14:23.51).
The Bruins won both the 4x100m (40.36) and 4x400m (3:12.84)
relays.
In the home meet on Saturday, the Bruins had an easier day. This
time, UCLA’s 256 points overwhelmed Azusa Pacific’s
138, UC Irvine’s 122 and CSU Los Angeles’ 57.
Venegas was pleased with this performance as well.
“Across the board we did a tremendous job,” he
said.
However, the highlight of the weekend, according to Venegas, was
Moser’s performance in the UCSD thrower’s meet on
Friday. Coming off wins at Cal, Moser competed in San Diego on
Friday against some of the best competition nationally, setting new
personal bests and breaking a UCLA junior record.
“Scott Moser is one of the national leaders right
now,” Venegas said.
While Moser was in San Diego, Bruin sophomore Scott Weigand was
able to win the shot put (57-2) and discus (161-6) on Saturday.
Bruin freshman Juaune Armon won the triple jump (48-9) and long
jump (24-0) with lifetime best marks.
Justin Patananan had a breakthrough performance in the 3,000m
steeplechase with a personal best of 9:23.96. Rounding out the
distance events, Andrew Wulf won the 1,500m (3:54.12) and Paul
Muite won the 3,000m (8:27.60).
UCLA also had winning times in the sprints, hurdles,
mid-distance and relay events.
Bruin distance runners Bryan Green and Will Bernaldo, who
skipped the home meet in favor of the Stanford Invitational,
recorded lifetime bests in their races up north. Facing an elite
field in the 10,000m, Green and Bernaldo finished 26th (29:25.20)
and 32nd (29:39.26), respectively.