Bruins dominate USC, BYU, finish off unbeaten season

Monday, 5/5/97 Bruins dominate USC, BYU, finish off unbeaten
season Personal bests, record breakers from Hayes, Simmons and
Powell lead team to victory

By Donald Morrison Daily Bruin Contributor The UCLA women’s
track team dominated against USC and BYU from start to finish and
completed its fifth straight unbeaten season in dual-meet
competition on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins handed their
cross-town rivals an 82-63 drubbing for their fifth-straight
dual-meet win over USC. UCLA also managed to fend off defending
Western Athletic Conference champion, BYU, 74-71, in front of 2113
people at Cromwell Field at USC. With wins over BYU and USC, the
Bruins finished their dual-meet season with a record of 10-0 and
have won 43 consecutive dual-meets since 1993. Under fourth-year
head coach, Jeanette Bolden, UCLA is 35-0. "I told the kids that
I’m happy that we won but that you can’t forget that USC beat us at
the Pac-10 championships last year," said Bolden. "We’re happy but
we’re not overconfident at all." UCLA’s winning effort over the
defending Pac-10 and WAC champions was aided by spectacular efforts
from Joanna Hayes, Deana Simmons and Suzy Powell. All three
athletes had personal bests on Saturday afternoon. Hayes smashed
her old personal best in the 400-meter hurdles by one second when
she ran a 57.33 to win the race. Her time leads the Pac-10 this
year. "I took it out really well," Hayes said. "That gave me all
the momentum to come home faster. Plus, Natasha Danvers (of USC)
was on my side and she pushed me to run faster." Hayes also ran a
season-best time of 13.09 in the 100-meter hurdles and anchored the
400-meter relay team of Andrea Anderson, Bisa Grant and Darlene
Malco to victory in a time of 44.53 seconds. Suzy Powell set a
Cromwell Field record and a personal best in the javelin throw when
she threw 175-11 to win the event by 15 feet over BYU’s Tiffany
Lott. Powell broke Faye Roblin’s old Cromwell Field record mark of
174-3. Powell also managed to continue her dominance over the field
in the discus, when she set a new UCLA-USC meet record of 200-2 for
the win, breaking her old mark of 189-7 in 1996. Freshman Deana
Simmons set a new personal record in the triple jump when she
leaped 44-1 1/4 inches for the win. Her mark is currently leading
the Pac-10 and is the fifth best effort in the nation. "I was a
little tight coming out at first because I have a little hamstring
problem," Simmons said. "It warmed up pretty good and I felt good
going into the triple jump. I felt a little achy during the long
jump but I got through it. I got hyped up for the triple jump. I
felt really good today. Andrea Anderson also set a personal best
when she crossed the finish line of the 400-meter dash with a
winning time of 53.02. Anderson also won the 200 with a time of
23.65. Amy Acuff won the high jump over Emelie Fardigh of USC with
a leap 6-2 3/4. Fardigh failed on all three attempts to beat
Acuff’s 6-2 3/4 and settled for second place with a mark of 6-0
3/4. Nada Kawar, Seilala Sua and Rachelle Noble finished in the top
three in the shot put competition. Kawar won the event with a put
of 56-5 and Sua was second with a toss of 54-8. Noble also competed
in the hammer throw, winning the event with a mark of 186-6.
Katherina Kechris finished in fourth place in the 3000 with a time
of 9:49.1 and ran her second fastest time of 4:30.1 in the 1500.
Christina Bowen set a personal best time of 4:31.8 in the 1500 and
Zalika Davis set a seasonal best time of 2:10.97 in the 800. "We
came into this meet knowing that this would be the most difficult
challenge for the middle distances and the long distances,"
distance coach Eric Peterson said. "I’m very pleased with the way
they handled this situation today." Previous Daily Bruin stories:
Women’s track hopes to sprint past USC, BYU in triple meet, May 2,
1997