Winning streak against USC now nine
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 6, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Junior Tracy O’Hara clears the bar and
places first in the pole vault at the UCLA-USC dual meet Saturday.
The Bruins extended their winning streak to nine, edging out the
Trojans 85-78. UCLA 85 USC 78
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA women’s track Head Coach Jeanette Bolden didn’t
see Bruin senior Michelle Perry cross the finish line.
That’s because Bolden was hiding in a tunnel.
As Perry held off Trojan Brigita Langerholc in the final leg of
the 4 x 400-meter relay to give No. 1 UCLA an 85-78 victory over
No. 2 USC on Saturday, Bolden was standing in the Loker Stadium
entrance.
Going into the match, Bolden knew the meet would be close. But
when the concept of a close competition transformed into a
real-life situation, Bolden panicked. With one event remaining
““ the 4 x 400 relay ““ UCLA led by just two points and
had to take that last race to extend its dual-meet winning streak
against USC to nine.
So Bolden, who later said Saturday’s meet was the best in
which she had ever participated, went into the tunnel and refused
to watch.
“Everyone on my staff wants it to come down to the
relay,” Bolden said. “Except me.”
Through the first two legs of the relay, the race was even.
Bolden, who heard the crowd of 3,127 roaring, knew the race was
close.
But at the end of the third lap, Bruin Ysanne Williams made a
late charge past Trojan Malika Edmonson to give Perry a 10-meter
advantage with a quarter-mile left. A botched USC handoff gave the
Bruins another five meters, and Perry appeared to have won the
race. Bolden heard the crowd quiet and was relieved.
The relief, however, was temporary. One hundred and fifty meters
into her leg, USC’s Langerholc ““ a fourth-place
finisher in the 800m at the 2000 Olympics and the winner of that
race Saturday ““ kicked her tempo up a notch. She exploded
around the final bend and closed in on the fading Perry.
Despite their efforts to maintain perfect form down the home
stretch, the two runners’ bodies locked up, and the race
became a contest of will.
Perry, ahead by five meters, recalled the disappointment she
felt two years ago when she was passed in the anchor leg of the 4 x
400m at the 1999 NCAA Championships, costing the Bruins the
national title. Wanting nothing more than to avoid reliving that
experience, Perry gritted her teeth and protected the lead. UCLA
hit the line at 3 minutes, 32.76 seconds. USC was directly behind
at 3:33.17.
“That was payback,” said Perry, who also won both
hurdling events.
For Bruin field events star Christina Tolson, the conclusion of
the meet was just as agonizing.
Tolson, who won both the shot put (58 feet, 2 1/2 inches) and
the hammer throw (207-3), was done with her events with a couple of
hours to go in the meet and had to endure the torture of seeing the
Trojans refusing to fold.
“I had a heart attack,” Tolson said. “It was
just too close. I’m not a runner, but I was running back and
forth across the track to cheer the entire meet.”
The meet was close throughout.
It started with Trojan junior Lucyna Ligaj winning a tactical
race in the open 3000m (10:03.28) and Bruin junior Elaine Canchola
immediately making up those points by taking the 3000m steeplechase
in a contest marked by an accidental deed of extreme cruelty.
Because meet officials lost track of the number of laps,
Canchola and the two other runners in the field were forced to run
an extra 400 meters in mid-80’s heat, providing the sadists
in the stands with a significant amount of pleasure. By the end of
the race, the runners were drained.
Canchola finished well ahead of her competitors (13:08.99 for
3400m) and the miscue would not have been so significant had she
not had plans of doubling back in the 1500m.
“That was inexcusable,” distance coach Eric Peterson
said.
Canchola, nonetheless, volunteered to push the early pace in the
1500m, running off Ligaj’s legs and allowing Bruin Lena
Nilsson (4:25.95) to slip by for second.
UCLA scored some unexpected points in the 100m, when senior
Shakedia Jones upset junior Angela Williams, the event’s
two-time defending NCAA champion, 11.13 to 11.18. Jones also beat
Williams in the 200m for second place.
Other Bruin winners included junior Darnesha Griffith in the
high jump (5-10 1/2), junior Tracy O’Hara in the pole vault
(14-feet) and junior Chaniqua Ross in the discus (183-9).
Following the meet, USC Head Coach Ron Allice asserted that UCLA
was the better team.
“This was our chance,” he said. “This is the
greatest team we’ve ever had, and UCLA still beat
us.”
Bolden, meanwhile, had already put the drama behind her. She
spoke of the Pac-10 Championships in two weeks and did not look
like someone who had been terrified just minutes before.
“For me, after the mile relay, it starts all over
again,” Bolden said. “We have to turn around and get it
out of our system.”
