M. track’s rivalry with USC: a tale of two eras

Monday, May 6, 1996

After falling first 33 times to Troy, since ’66 Bruins are
25-5By Emmanuelle Ejercito

Daily Bruin Staff

Thirty years after ending USC’s streak of 33 victories at the
annual UCLA-USC dual meet, the UCLA men’s track team continued a
streak of its own Saturday at Drake Stadium.

Since its first win over USC in 1966, UCLA has won 25 of the
last 30 dual meets. And, for the eighteenth straight year, the
Bruins beat the Trojans Saturday, this time drubbing Southern Cal
109-52. UCLA also dominated BYU, 114-41. Overall in the triangular,
UCLA finished first with 105 points, followed by USC (56) and BYU
(38).

"I was a little concerned because we have been running for quite
a long time, four meets in a row," UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said.
"But I thought that they did pretty well and part of it was there
were enough people here to get them excited."

Fears that UCLA may have been fatigued because of its hectic
meet schedule were easily dispelled as the Bruins opened up the
meet with a spectacular 400-meter relay. The unchallenged team of
Ato Boldon, Ibrahim Hassan, Erik Allen and Gentry Bradley finished
with the best national collegiate time of the season in 39.10.

The mark improves UCLA’s season-best by over two-tenths of a
second and is good enough for an automatic NCAA qualification.

"I’m really surprised at the relay," Boldon said, "because we
were outside so we didn’t really have anyone to run against, so we
ran that pretty much by ourselves. To run the fastest time in the
country by yourself is really good, it does a lot for our
confidence."

Boldon also found individual success on the track. In his first
200-meter race this season, Boldon wanted to get an automatic
qualifying mark, a feat that he quickly achieved. Boldon flew by
everyone to finish in 20.29.

"To open at 20.29 shows that my fitness is where it needs to
be," Boldon said. "It’s an automatic qualifier so it’s behind me
and I can work on being under 20."

Boldon placed first in the 100 with relative ease as well,
setting a meet record of 10.04.

The real battle in the 100 was between Bradley, USC’s Jason
Shelton and BYU’s Felix Andam for second place. Bradley and Shelton
ran stride for stride with Andam nipping at their heels. At the
tape, Bradley edged out Shelton with a personal record 10.30.
Shelton finished in 10.31.

Bradley also set a personal best in the 200-meters with a second
place time of 20.86, three one-hundredths of a second faster than
his previous best.

"I’ve been waiting for Bradley to run like he has been running
today," UCLA sprints coach John Smith said. "It’s a good indication
that we are starting to round ourselves in real good shape."

But success for UCLA could also be found in the distances, where
two athletes set personal bests.

Mebrahtom Keflezighi took the lead after 400 meters in the 1,500
meter race and never let up. Keflezighi crossed the line at
3:45.04, shaving over two seconds off his personal best.

"Running against good people and having the lead the whole way,
that’s a pretty spectacular race for him," Larsen said.

Meanwhile, Devin Elizondo ran virtually unchallenged in the
3,000-meter steeplechase, and finished with a personal best
9:05.96.

There were no surprises on the field, with UCLA comfortably
winning the javelin, pole vault, triple jump, shot put and
discus.

The Bruins took the top four spots in the discus, with Luke
Sullivan taking first (188-5) and Mark Parlin leading the way in
the shot put (62-2 1/2).

SUSIE CHU/Daily Bruin

Mebrahtom Keflezighi

Overall in the triangular (against USC and BYU), UCLA finished
first …