Darlene’s dilemma

Friday, May 10, 1996

Sprinter’s versatility presents problem in choosing best eventBy
Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Staff

Darlene Malco stepped up to the starting line for her 200-meter
race last Saturday, and for the first time since she can remember,
had a knot in her stomach.

Hanging in the balance of her event, the second-to-last of the
dual meet, was the UCLA women’s track and field team’s 24-dual meet
winning streak, which, more importantly, included three consecutive
victories over the Bruins’ opponent that day, USC.

As Malco prepared for the 200, the Trojans were clinging to a
68-62 lead, and anything better than a 2-3 finish would clinch the
meet for USC.

"Jeanette (Bolden, UCLA head coach) walked up to me and was
like, ‘We need to go 1-2 in this. That’s it, that’s all I’m going
to say,’" Malco recalls. "Before I got on that line, for a second,
everything flew out the window. I was like, ‘Oh my god.’

"But right before I got into the blocks, I just remembered
everything that I had been doing in practice, what (the coaches)
set me up to do this meet."

And in the end, Malco bolted to a second-place finish, crossing
the line after only teammate Andrea Anderson. Fifteen minutes
later, Malco and Anderson teamed with Mame Twumasi and Camille Noel
to win the 1,600 relay, and with a 74-70 victory, the Bruins had
kept their streak intact.

Her 23.57 finish in the 200, a lifetime-best, earned Malco a
provisional qualification to the NCAA Outdoor Championships later
this month and ranks her second, to Anderson, in the Pacific 10
Conference this season, but it has also brought to light a problem
of sorts for the junior.

"In the first two years that Darlene has been here, she has
struggled, and is still struggling, with which event is her best,"
Bolden says. "She’s on the NCAA list in the 400-meter hurdles, the
400, now the 200, and she runs on both relays, so she’s just
struggling with which one is her best event."

The dilemma is nothing new for Malco, who was born in Brooklyn,
moved to Texas when she was five, and attended Baytown High School
in Baytown, a small city about 15 minutes outside of Houston.

She began running in the seventh grade, for no other reason than
the lanky figure that, at 5-feet, 9-inches tall, she still boasts
today.

"I was this kid with long legs, and people were like, ‘You can
run!’" Malco recalls. "More or less, it was something to do.

"I was never pushed. My folks are Trinidadian, so competitive
sports to them were like soccer and cricket. They were like, ‘You
want to do what? Okay.’ But after a while, they were like, ‘Hey,
she’s kind of good,’ and then they were like, ‘Okay, now we’ve seen
what this is all about.’"

Mostly, it was about winning. By the time Malco graduated from
high school, the three-sport star (she also played volleyball and
basketball) had racked up three state titles on the track.

Ironically enough, all of the titles came in the five-event
performer’s least favorite event ­ the 300-meter hurdles. And,
in her senior season, it was her national high school leading time
in the 300-hurdles that caught the attention of college coaches
around the nation, including then-UCLA head coach Bobby Kersee.

"It’s funny, because when Bobby came to my house to recruit me,
he asked which events I liked," Malco says. "I was telling him the
relays, the 200 and everything like that, and he was like, ‘What
about the hurdles?’

"And I was like, ‘No, I don’t like those too much.’ He said,
‘You mean to tell me that you’ve been doing so well, leading the
nation, and you don’t like them?’ And I said, ‘No, really and
truly, I don’t like them at all.’"

Nonetheless, Malco ended up in Westwood, and even today, Bolden
feels that her greatest potential lies in the 400-meter hurdles. At
present, Malco’s best time in the event is 59.49, which
provisionally qualifies her for the NCAA meet and ranks among the
nation’s 25 fastest this season.

"I think Darlene is an outstanding 400-meter hurdler," Bolden
says. "She has good speed, so she can run a 200, and she has good
speed endurance, so she can run the open quarter. But ultimately, I
think her best event is the 400 hurdles, because of her stride
length and because of the strength that she has in the 400."

Quite possibly UCLA’s most versatile sprinter, Malco has also
toiled in the heptathlon, where she scored a 4,489 last season. But
in this year of the Olympics, Kersee, who coaches the Bruin
heptathletes, has devoted most of his time to training world-class
track legends Jackie Joyner Kersee and Gail Devers.

And with injuries to All-Americans Camille Noel, Cicely Scott
and Erin Blunt ­ three of UCLA’s most established quarter
milers, Malco hasn’t had time to worry about the heptathlon anyway,
instead focusing on the 400 and the 400-hurdles.

"It’s just a lot of learning that she has to do in the
heptathlon," Bolden says. "In the first part of the year, she did a
lot of training for it, but with Cicely’s (Scott) foot, and with
Erin’s (Blunt) foot, and with the progression that Camille’s been
on, we needed someone to step up in the 400, to make sure our relay
still has a chance to go to NCAAs.

"We had to make sure that we didn’t sacrifice any other events
by training her for the heptathlon."

The decision to hold off on the heptathlon has reaped benefits
for the team and for Malco. In addition to the 200, she has also
run the conference’s second fastest time this season in the 400,
and she is finally coming to terms with the dreaded hurdles.

"Right now, the 400-meter hurdles are more or less a mental game
with me, learning to like it, learning to live with it and learning
to appreciate it," Malco says. "I think that it’s the hardest event
out here on the track.

"You have to be mentally tough, and I think that I’ve been
putting myself at a disadvantage with them because I just don’t
like them. But Bobby (Kersee) has been telling me that this is an
event that I can easily pick up, and I’m starting to see that now
­ I’m willing to give it a try."

And which event will she run at this month’s NCAA outdoor meet?
Whichever will do most to help the team, probably the
400-meters.

"I’m going to try my best to do what I can in the quarter,"
Malco says. "Bobby basically told us that the next six practices,
we’re going to be laying out on the track ­ we’re just going
to be dead ­ and if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it
takes.

"We really have nothing to lose, so we might as well die at
nationals trying to win. We’ve all adopted that attitude, and that
really and truly is what makes us go."

SUSIE CHU/Daily Bruin

Despite her dislike of the hurdles, they may be junior sprinter
Darlene Malco’s best event. Marco’s best 400-meter hurdles time is
one of top 25 in the country.