M. track ready for duel with cross-town rival
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 2, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Friday, May 3, 1996
Bruins look for 18th consecutive win over Southern CalBy
Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
College football has the Rose Bowl, basketball has March
Madness, and track and field has the UCLA-USC dual meet.
This Saturday at Drake Stadium the rivalry will continue with
the Trojans leading the series 38-24. The Bruins, however, have won
the last 17 meets and look to have the advantage in winning number
18.
But it won’t be just a Bruin-Trojan affair. Brigham Young
University will also be competing at the meet.
Should sprinter Ato Boldon compete true to form, UCLA will have
the advantage in the 100-and 200-meters. This weekend will mark the
first time that the defending NCAA 200-meter champion has run in
the event all season.
"I would like to get an NCAA automatic qualifying time to get
that out of the way," Boldon said about his first competitive race
in the 200 this year. "It is very important to me to get a quality
200 race because I don’t have that many left (before NCAAs)."
The competition USC provides in the 100 comes in the form of
Jason Shelton, while BYU has Felix Andam. But they can’t hold an
Olympic torch to Boldon and the fight will be for second in the 100
between UCLA’s Gentry Bradley, Andam and Shelton.
For the second week in a row, Mebrahtom Keflezighi will not run
in the 5,000. Because Keflezighi had already automatically
qualified for the NCAAs in the 5,000, the coaches feel it would be
best for him to run in the 1,500.
"Because he missed that workout time (earlier in the season),"
UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said, "we haven’t gotten him fast yet.
The 1,500-meter is a speed race for a distance runner so right now
we are working on his speed."
The 1,500 will be a close race with Keflezighi, USC’s Brandon
Pacheco and BYU’s Fikre Wondafrash. Pacheco has the fastest mark of
the three with a 3:47.81.
On the field, UCLA will have the edge in most of the events
except for the hammer which Trojan Balazs Kiss owns. The three-time
defending NCAA champion has a season best throw of 254-1. In
contrast, UCLA’s best thrower David Dumble, has a personal best of
200-2.
The shot put, however, belongs to the Bruins. USC’s best throw
this season is over 20 feet less than Mark Parlin’s. This week
Jonathan Ogden, who missed the last two meets, will add to the
Bruin dominance.
After jetting back and forth between Los Angeles and Baltimore
for the last three weeks, Ogden is ready to concentrate on the
shot.
"Right now I don’t have any commitments to the Ravens until
July," Ogden said. "So right now I am going to concentrate on track
and field."
Although his practice schedule has been thrown off, UCLA
throwing coach Art Venegas believes that Ogden can recover this
weekend.
"Ogden is way down in the basement but he will remedy in a
hurry," Venegas said. "He’s throwing real well right now. He will
definitely go out for a PR this weekend I’m sure."
Although on paper UCLA seems to have the advantage in most of
the events and should come out with a higher point total, the
Bruins have run in a meet virtually every week this quarter.
Meanwhile, USC took a break last weekend and should be well rested
for this meet.
"If we are not on our toes, USC might reverse the result in some
of the events that we look stronger in," Larsen said. "But I’m
hoping because it is the USC meet there will be more emotion."
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
Sprinter Ato Boldon will run the 200-meters.
