M. track crushes USC, BYU

M. track crushes USC, BYU

By Tim Costner

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The UCLA men’s track and field team defeated USC for the 17th
consecutive time last Saturday at Cromwell Field, crushing Brigham
Young in the process.

Thanks to doubles by UCLA’s John Godina and Ato Boldon, the
Bruins topped the Trojans, 90-71, and humiliated the Cougars 111
1/2 -37 1/2 in dual scoring.

Boldon won the 100m in 10.24, and won the 200m in just 20.33.
Both races featured swirling winds, making Boldon’s times more
impressive than the numbers indicate.

Even more impressive is the fact that Boldon finished the last
five meters of the 200 with his arms raised in victory. His time
from that race currently leads the nation.

"My 200 surprised even me," Boldon said. "I wasn’t expecting to
run that fast. I was pretty relaxed, and I put my hands up before
the end of the race. It might have affected my race a little bit,
but this is the last time I get to do this. At the Pac-10s I’ll be
so focused that my hands won’t be going anywhere ­ except to
hold that Pac-10 trophy."

In the shotput and the discus, Godina easily won both, but had
difficulty putting together a solid series in either event. Godina
won the shot with a mark of 66 feet, 4 1/4 inches, and won the
discus with a throw of 204-11.

"We’ll find out if I’m as good as I think I am next week or the
week after," Godina said. "Maybe it was just a bad meet, maybe I’m
an idiot. Who knows. I’m more inclined to say it was a bad meet. I
see how well I’m doing in training ­ there’s no excuse."

Godina led a Bruin sweep in the shot, with Mark Parlin finishing
second with a throw of 60-3, and Jonathan Ogden finishing third
with a mark of 58-10 1/4. UCLA throwing coach Art Venegas felt the
throwers were flat overall.

"I felt like we were ready, but it was one of those meets,"
Venegas said. "Even though we scored well, I would call it a subpar
meet. There was nothing where you saw anything incredible or more
than you expected. I think we better wake up before the Pac-10s and
the NCAAs."

In other running events, UCLA’s Mike Terry won the 800m in
1:52.19, UCLA’s Mebrahtom Keflezighi won the 1,500m in 3:50.48 and
UCLA’s Devin Elizondo won the 3,000m steeplechase in 9:07.6. On the
field, Bruin highjumper Rich Pitchford won with a height of 6-11
3/4, UCLA’s Scott Slover won the pole vault at 17-6 3/4 and Thomas
Ganda won the long jump with a mark of 24-11 3/4.

"I was proud of what the team accomplished," said UCLA head
coach Bob Larsen. "Looking ahead, USC is going to be very
formidable at the Pac-10s. They were a close second to us last
year, and they have everybody back. We have a lot of work to do to
get our fourth (consecutive) Pac-10 title."