ONLINE EXTRA: Track and field teams ready to dominate

By J.P. Hoornstra
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Before it even sets foot in Dempsey Indoor Stadium in Seattle,
the UCLA track and field team managed to put a scare into the
enemy.

Oregon, one of the Bruins’ opponents at tomorrow’s
University of Washington Quad Classic, requested that its
team’s results not be officially counted.

“I don’t know if it’s because they don’t
want to score against us or Washington,” UCLA men’s
head coach Art Venegas said.

Either way, both the men’s squad (competing in its first
meet of the year) and the women’s (second) project the
confidence needed to dominate the field tomorrow.

“We have high goals this season,” shot putter Jack
Clamon said. “We’ll go out, have fun, beat some guys.
All four (shot-putters) are really good so we should do
well.”

By expanding the meet roster from last year, the men’s
team is stepping up its effort to compete in the indoor season.

“We competed about 12 people last year, and we’re
competing about 20 this year,” Venegas said. “This is
the first year we’re putting a greater team
effort.”

An important event on the men’s side should be the discus
throw. Scott Moser earned two NCAA All-America honors in 2001 in
the event, and was recently ranked eighth in the country by Track
& Field News.

At stake on the women’s side this weekend is an automatic
NCAA finals qualifying bid for sophomore Caroline Soong in the
20-pound weight throw.

“I need to throw over 63 feet (to qualify),” Soong
said. “It should be a really good meet for us to have a big
team effort and really dominate.”

The women’s team placed third at the Illinois
Women’s Invitational last Saturday.

Boise State, Eastern Washington, Portland, Portland State and
Washington also will compete in the seven-team meet.