By Will Whitehorn
Daily Bruin Contributor
The significance of last weekend’s UCLA women’s
track victory over No. 2 USC was not lost on UCLA Throwing Coach
Art Venegas. The turning point in the meet didn’t escape him
either.
“The difference between the men’s meet and the
women’s meet was Shakedia Jones winning her hundred
(100-meter dash) over the best in the country, Angela
Williams,” he said of Jones’ upset victory over
USC’s near-Olympic qualifier. “That was a major
electric shock for the team; that was awesome.”
No. 1 ranked UCLA will attempt to channel that electricity into
a Pac-10 championship next week when the conference convenes for
its annual meet, this year in Berkeley. In the meantime,
UCLA’s pole vaulters will make an additional trip to the 60th
annual Modesto Relays this weekend, while a group of distance
runners will compete at the Occidental Invitational.
“Modesto’s really a great place to jump and keep
honing your skills,” said UCLA women’s Head Coach
Jeannette Bolden. “It’s a great place to compete and to
continue to improve upon the things that you’ve already
done.”
The Bruin spotlight this weekend will be on junior vaulter Tracy
O’Hara, who contributed to the Bruins’ ninth-straight
win over USC with a victory in the pole vault.
 O’Hara’s leap of 14 feet won the event and set a
meet record, and followed her impressive jump of 14-6 at the
previous Cal/Nevada Track & Field Meet at UC Irvine.
UCLA will also need repeat performances this weekend from
Heather Sickler and Erica Hoering to fare well. Sickler and Hoering
each cleared the bar at the 13-3 1/2 mark for the Bruins, who took
four of the five places in the event. Sophomore Karen Bewley
finished fourth.
Some of the throwers and jumpers will stay in town this weekend
for the Occidental Invitational Track Meet at Occidental College.
The remainder of the squad will rest after two straight weeks of
intense competition at USC and the Penn Relays.
Senior Michelle Perry, the nation’s No. 1 heptathlete,
will not compete at the Pac-10 Multi-Events competition this
weekend at Berkeley.
“She doesn’t really have anything to prove,”
Bolden said of Perry, who also anchored UCLA’s meet-clinching
4 x 400m relay team. “She needs to rest up from last weekend,
and then get ready for (the Pac-10 Championships).”
Perry’s overall performance at USC won her the Pac-10
Athlete of the Week award. Perry follows teammate Sheena
Johnson, who took home the award last week. UCLA has snared the
prize four times in the last five weeks (thrower Christina Tolson
has also been honored), making the award an almost weekly ritual
for the Bruins.
“I think it’s a well-deserved honor,” Bolden
said. “Without a doubt, she worked about as hard as anybody
could work. She did a fantastic job this weekend.”
The Bruins will use their time off to evaluate the competition
and the team, and select the athletes that will venture to the Bay
Area next weekend.
“We’re just kind of in a decision-making mode for
the top 24 people that we’re going to take to Pac-10s,”
Bolden said.
At their torrid pace, selecting the best of the best might be
the most challenging obstacle UCLA will have to face.