W. track can’t keep the pace, finishes third at Pac-10s

Monday, May 20, 1996

USC, Oregon too much for injury-plagued BruinsBy Scott
Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Staff

The UCLA women’s track and field team and its three-year reign
atop the Pacific 10 Conference ended over the weekend, with an
upstart USC squad capturing its school’s first league title
Saturday and Sunday at Drake Stadium.

The Trojans finished the competition with 151 points, edging the
144 points posted by runner-up Oregon and well-ahead of UCLA’s 117.
Washington was fourth with 77 points and was followed by Stanford
(69), California (67), Washington State (56), Arizona State (51)
and Arizona (48).

"We were trying to create a men’s and women’s program that is
balanced and one that’s successful ­ that’s why I came to ‘SC,
to do that," USC head coach Ron Allice said. "That’s the challenge
we took, and before, everybody assumed that USC was a sprints,
hurdles and jumps school, and one of the things that helped us
achieve this was our balance."

Indeed, USC’s winning effort was dependent on balance. Three of
the Trojans’ seven individual titles came in the distance events,
with Emebet Shiferaw doubling in the 3,000- and 5,000-meters
(9:12.97 and 16:16.27, respectively) and Grazyna Penc winning the
1,500 (4:23.71).

Tori Edwards was a triple-winner for USC, earning the 100- and
200-meter titles (11.48 and 23.1hand-timed, respectively) as well
as anchoring the Trojans’ winning 400-meter relay (44.70), while
Nicole Haynes contributed 10 points to the winning effort with last
week’s heptathlon title.

The story of the meet, however, wasn’t so much that USC won its
first title. Instead, it was that UCLA, which had dominated the
conference meet for the past three years, fell all the way to third
place.

The Bruins, picked to finish third in this year’s NCAA outdoor
meet, had just completed a fourth consecutive undefeated dual-meet
season, including a win over USC two weeks ago.

But a rash of injuries left head coach Jeanette Bolden with the
smallest squad that she had ever brought to the conference meet,
and the Bruins didn’t have the depth to hold off USC and
Oregon.

"We’ve got six girls redshirting, so we knew that we did not
have the numbers," Bolden said. "We knew that it was going to be
extremely difficult."

Those that did compete for UCLA did not disappoint. The Bruins
garnered four individual titles, with Valeyta Althouse winning her
third shot put crown, Amy Acuff her third high jump title, Joanna
Hayes the 100-meter hurdles, and Darlene Malco the 400-meters.

Andrea Anderson was second in the 200 and third in the 100,
while Bisa Grant was third in the 100-meter hurdles and fifth in
the 100, and Mame Twumasi was sixth in the 400.

Althouse, who set the collegiate record in winning last year’s
title, heaved the shot 59-6 1/4 to walk away with this year’s. She
was followed in second place by teammate Nada Kawar, who threw 53-1
3/4.

Acuff, who cleared 6-3 1/4 to win the high jump, was relatively
unchallenged by second-place finisher Tanya Smith (5-10 3/4) of
USC, and Hayes won the short hurdles in a non -wind-aided
lifetime-best 13.29.

Malco, who was sixth in the 400-meters at last year’s conference
meet, improved her lifetime best by over a second and won UCLA’s
first-ever conference title in that event with a 52.39.

That mark automatically qualifies her for the NCAA
championships, although she will have to undergo some
rehabilitation before she gets there.

An hour after she won the 400, Malco was rounding the turn in
the 200-meters, where she had the second-fastest time in the
conference, and pulled up with a strained hamstring.

She was unable to finish the race and, even worse, couldn’t run
her normal anchor leg in the 1,600 relay, the last event of the
meet.

"I’ve been having a little bit of a hamstring problem for a
couple of weeks," Malco said. "This last week, I had really good
practices and didn’t feel it at all, but after the 400-relay I felt
it a little bit but wasn’t really stressing over it.

"After the quarter, I felt fine, and then, coming out of the
turn in the 200, I felt it and thought I could go.

"Obviously, I couldn’t."

Said Bolden: "The worst thing that happened today was Darlene
going down in the 200 ­ that was a coach’s nightmare."

Unfortunately for the Bruins, it wasn’t the only nightmare of
the day.

Sophomore discus thrower Suzy Powell, a decided favorite heading
into the meet, was upset by Washington’s Aretha Hill on the last
throw of the competition.

Powell threw 190-11 on her last attempt, while Hill went
195-9.

"This is one of the most exciting things I’ve seen in all the
years I’ve been coaching," UCLA throwing coach Art Venegas said. "
I’ve been on the other end of performances like that, and once in a
while, I’ve got to be on this end so I can appreciate when we do
catch fire."