As planned, team gets mission accomplished
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 10, 1998 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, June 11, 1998
As planned, team gets mission accomplished
MTRACK: Bruins reap high national ranking, Pac-10
championship
By Donald Morrison
Daily Bruin Contributor
Heading into this year’s outdoor track and field season, the
UCLA men’s track team wanted to accomplish three things: win all
its dual meets, win the Pacific 10 Championship and have a strong
showing at the NCAA Championships.
After the 1998 outdoor season, the Bruins can consider those
goals completed.
The team finished the season 10-0 in dual meet competition and
won its 20th consecutive dual meet over USC. The Bruins also
extended their dual meet winning streak to 55.
At the Pac-10 Championships, UCLA won its sixth conference crown
in seven years and its ninth in 12 years. The Bruins, at the meet,
avenged last year’s second-place finish to crosstown rival USC.
"I think the team should be proud of what they did accomplish,"
UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said. "I think it keeps the standard at
a very high level."
The Bruins took on a high level of competition throughout the
year, competing in the toughest conference meet in the entire
nation and competing at the NCAA Championships in Buffalo, N.Y.,
last week.
As a team, UCLA finished sixth after being expected to finish
eighth or ninth at the meet all year.
Even though the team placed sixth at the NCAA Championships,
UCLA ended the year ranked second in the nation in the power
rankings. The power rankings rate the strongest overall track teams
and not the performances of the team’s individuals who qualified
for the NCAA Championships.
Texas Christian was ranked No. 1, but Larsen feels that UCLA
would have a really good chance at beating TCU in a dual meet.
UCLA had a strong showing at the national meet with 12 Bruins
earning All-American honors.
Seniors Josh Johnson, Scott Slover and Mebrahtom Keflezighi once
again earned All-American honors.
Senior Mel Moultry garnered his first All-American honor as did
all four members of the 400-meter relay team.
The members, Brian Fell, Brandon Thomas, Damian Allen and Jim
McElroy, ran the second-fastest 400-meter relay time in school
history in 38.96 seconds.
Luke Sullivan and Wade Tift are also All-Americans as is –
perhaps the biggest surprise of the year – Jess Strutzel. Strutzel,
a sophomore, finished fifth at the NCAA meet and third at the
Pac-10 meet in the 800-meters.
"I think (Strutzel) is going to continue to develop and has a
great future," Larsen said. "Next year he’ll get to stretch his
talents out to 1,500-meters. He’ll have more time to develop and
will be stronger next year."
Earlier in the year, Keflezighi set two school records. He set
the 10,000-meter school record at Stanford with a time of 28
minutes, 16.79 seconds, breaking Steve Ortiz’s time of 28:21.70 set
in 1982.
Keflezighi broke his own 5,000-meter school record by running
13:30.22 at Mt. SAC in April.
Even though key seniors, like Slover, Johnson, Moultry and
Keflezighi will leave, Larsen feels that the younger athletes will
step up and fill the leadership shoes.
"The seniors were stable and that experience really paid off,"
Larsen said. "We’ll have a lot of depth in the sprints and all the
field athletes are back next year."
