Overexertion m. track¹s concern in Davis

Friday, April 26, 1996

On track, usual suspects will run unusual events, while field
loses Ogden to RavensBy Emmanuelle Ejercito

Daily Bruin Staff

With USC ­ the biggest dual meet of the season ­
coming up next weekend for the UCLA men’s track team, and the
championship stretch following two weeks later, the Bruins do not
want to overexert themselves this weekend in Davis at the
California-Nevada Championships.

Two years ago, UCLA won the inaugural championship. Last year
the Bruins did not field a complete squad (only 12 Bruin athletes
participated), while the rest of the team competed at the Penn
Relays.

This year, UCLA will bring close to a full squad, but with a few
twists in the events.

"This is a meet where you have to qualify on Saturday and then
the final is on Sunday," UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said. "So
coming off Mt. SAC and other big meets coming up, we don’t want to
take any chances on injuries."

After running a 9.93 in the 100 last weekend at Mt. SAC, Ato
Boldon will not be running in the 100 or the 200 sprints. But
Boldon will participate in both the 400 and 1,600 relays.

Ibrahim Hassan will also be a member of the relay teams and run
in the 200, but he will not run in the 400.

Last Sunday, Hassan ran an automatic qualifying time of 45:13,
making him the conference leader in the event.

Meanwhile, Mebrahtom Keflezighi will try an event he hasn’t run
all season ­ the 1,500 meters. Taking his place in
Keflezighi’s usual 5,000m will be Devin Elizondo, who will not run
in the 3,000m steeplechase, his specialty.

"We’ll be fairly represented in every event," Larsen said.
"Almost all of our people will be entered, we just won’t go to the
wall to try and win this meet. But we’ll try to be real
competitive."

"It’s not the Pac-10 championships, it’s not the NCAA
championships, but it’s a high level competitive meet and we would
like to do well."

On the field, the Bruin athletes will compete in their normal
events, with the exception of a couple of absences in the shot
put.

Senior Jonathan Ogden will not compete in the shot because he
will be in Baltimore for a mini-camp with the Ravens.

A hand injury that prevented Travis Haynes from throwing the
shot earlier this season has flared up, so he will not represent
UCLA in that event.

Haynes will still throw the discus and the hammer.

But UCLA will not be at all undermanned in that event. Mark
Parlin, currently ranked second in the conference in the shot put,
and Wade Tift will throw the shot for the Bruins.

PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin

Travis Haynes competes despite a sore hand.