Bruins stretch legs in record-breaking meet

Wednesday, February 10, 1999

Bruins stretch legs in record-breaking meet

TRACK: Distance medley relay team ranked No. 1 after weekend
conference

By Moin Salahuddin

Daily Bruin Contributor

What a difference a second makes.

Several members of the UCLA men’s track team travelled to the
Butler University Cannon IV Classic in Indianapolis to compete this
past weekend.

Last Friday, the Bruin distance medley relay (DMR) team of Jess
Strutzel, Brian Fell, Michael Granville and Mark Hauser raced and
won the race in quite an impressive fashion.

Less than a second separated them from the American record for
the DMR, as they completed the race in 9:36.67. While it was a
school record and automatic qualifier for the NCAA championships,
it fell short of the mark set by Georgetown University in 9:35.85
in 1997.

"It was a school record, a meet record, and ranks us first in
the nation this year," head coach Bob Larsen said. "They were
impeded a little bit by several spectators who walked out onto the
track. Granville and Hauser both had to push them off the track.
But the runners still ran a great time."

The DMR consists of 1,200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter and
1,600-meter legs, respectively. Running on a 200-meter indoor
track, Strutzel led off with a 2:56 split. Next up was Pac-10
400-meter hurdle champion Brian Fell.

Fell ran a 46.9 second leg before handing off the baton to
Granville. Granville ran an impressive 1:48 leg, stretching the
lead to several seconds over his competitors.

"Granville ran a great split," Larsen said. "We had a lead after
Strutzel ran the 1,200 and we were running alone the rest of the
way."

Hauser then ran the final leg of the relay, the 1,600 meters.
Having already run a 4:01 mile indoors earlier in San Diego, it
appeared as though Hauser could break 4 minutes. However, that was
not the case.

Not realizing that his race was on Friday, Hauser ran 11 miles
the day before. But this had little effect, as he ran a blazing
4:04 split.

"Mark woke up Thursday morning thinking that he was going to
race on Saturday," Larsen said. "So he went on a long run and when
we arrived, he found out that his race was actually Friday."

In other action, Strutzel came back on Saturday to compete in
the 800. Racing against Arizona runner Patrick Nduwimana, Strutzel
ran strong, but not strong enough, as Nduwimana won in 1:47.01.
Strutzel finished second in a school record 1:48.07, breaking
Granville’s indoor mark from a year ago.

Hauser came back the next day also to compete in the 3,000-meter
against some formidable competition.

Racing against Tony Cosey of Adidas and Chan Pons of North
Carolina State, Hauser went out hard. He finished second behind
Cosey and ran an automatic qualifying time for the NCAA
Championships in 7:57.89. It was also a school record, eclipsing
his own record by four seconds.

Fell ran the open 400-meter race but was considerably tired from
the near American-record performance of the night before. Routinely
racing in the 46 second area, Fell finished fourth with a time of
47.79 seconds.

Competing for the Bruins in the pole vault were Steven Michels
and Barry McLaughlin. Michels set a personal record on back to back
attempts, eventually clearing 17-5 1/2. McLaughlin did nearly as
well, as he ended up crossing the bar at 16-11 1/2.

"Michels and McLaughlin have been improving and will most likely
compete in the NCAA Championships," Larsen said.

UCLA next competes this weekend in the L.A. Invitational, the
Long Beach Relays and at the Air Force.Daily Bruin file photo

UCLA runner Jess Strutzel runs past the competition in a meet
last season against UCSB and CSULB.

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