Bruins making run for Pac-10 title

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Junior vaulter Heather
Sickler will compete this weekend at the Pac-10
Championships.

By Will Whitehorn
Daily Bruin Contributor

At the risk of paraphrasing an R&B song, the Pac-10 had
better be ready for this weekend’s jelly.

Destiny’s Child probably didn’t have the UCLA
women’s track team on their minds when they cut their next
single. Nonetheless, the conference’s task at this
weekend’s Pac-10 Track & Field Championships will be the
same as it’s been for the last four years: stopping the
Bruins.

UCLA can claim their fifth conference title in a row and 12th
overall with a victory in Berkeley this weekend. The Bruins will
square off against arguably the nation’s toughest conference
for women’s track, with three Pac-10 teams in the top 10 (No.
1 UCLA, No. 2 USC, and No. 6 Arizona) and seven overall in the top
25.

The Bruins are painfully aware of the competition that awaits
them.

“We worry about every athlete because (the conference) is
so loaded,” said Throwing Coach Art Venegas.
“There’s Olympic-level athletes here and there ““
just about every team. They’re all great.”

Nevertheless, the focus in practice this week was on the Bruins,
not the other schools.

“We just have to do our job,” Venegas continued.
“If we do our job, the point totals will fall our
way.”

Junior thrower Chaniqua Ross confidently concurred.

“I wouldn’t even say that we were worried about
USC,” she said. “We just kind of want to go there and
perform to our fullest potential. If we do that, then we
shouldn’t have any problems at all.”

The 24 athletes UCLA will send to the East Bay are statistically
among the best in the nation. Senior Christina Tolson will look to
defend her title in the hammer throw, which she claimed last year
with a toss of 208-5. Tolson will also look to improve upon last
years’ finish in the shot put. This season Tolson has
routinely bested last year’s second place throw of 51-6,
including a toss of 58-2 at USC two weeks ago.

The Bruins also boast the No. 1 heptathlete in the nation in
senior Michelle Perry, who earlier this year became the first Bruin
since 1995 to qualify for the NCAAs in the heptathlon. Perry is
integral to the bread and butter of the track team as well, on the
4 x 400 meter relay squad. Freshmen Adia McKinnon and Sheena
Johnson, junior Ysanne Williams and anchor Perry qualified earlier
this month for the NCAAs with a time of 3 minutes, 32.17 seconds in
a victory at USC.

Olympic-qualifier senior Shakedia Jones will also seek to
conquer the field in the 100m. Jones turned in an astounding mark
of 11.13 in defeating USC’s Olympic-hopeful junior Angela
Williams, the two-time reigning NCAA and Pac-10 Champion in the
event, two weeks ago. Jones also anchors the 4 x 100m relay.

Junior pole vaulter Tracy O’Hara looks to impress as well.
O’Hara, the nation’s No. 1 collegiate vaulter, will
defend her Pac-10 Championship record mark of 13-7, a mark she
bested this season after clearing the bar at 14-6 at the Cal/Nevada
Meet last month, the top mark in the nation.

Darnesha Griffith hopes to defend a Pac-10 title of her own in
the high jump. Griffith won the event with a jump of 5-10 last
year, a full five inches higher then her 5-5 frame and knows she
must concentrate on her form if she is to repeat as champion.

“Everything is looking pretty good, except for my
technique,” she said, noting that she is also wary of her
competitors. “Whitney Evans from Washington, I think
she’s leading the (NCAAs) right now. She’s a big
competitor. (But) I hope they’re worrying about me more than
I’m worrying about them. That’s an advantage to
me.”

The Bruins are concentrating on staying healthy and not losing
sight of the significance of the event.

“Right now it’s pretty intense because it’s
down to championship time,” said freshmen Sani Roseby, who
qualified for her first Pac-10 Championships in the relays and will
compete with Perry in the hurdles.

“It’s intense trying to make it to the finals, let
alone placing in the top three.”

The attention which is being paid to a top-three finish, rather
than a first-place finish, should come as welcome relief to the
coaching staff, who worry that because of the many individual
events at the championship, the concept of “team” will
get lost in the shuffle.

“It’s not just individual (events),” Venegas
said. “You’ve got to do your job for the team.
Let’s say you’re the favorite, but you’re not
feeling right. You can’t act like a spoiled brat and get
eighth, ninth or tenth.

“If you can get second, then get that second (for the
team),” Venegas added.

If and when the Bruins leave this final mental obstacle before
NCAAs in their wake, then, with all due respect to the R&B trio
from Houston, their drive and talent will have them looking like
the real team of destiny.