UCLA heads off to NCAA finals

By J.P. Hoornstra
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

With the exception of the relay races, track and field meets
consist of a series of individual events. Apparently, someone
forgot to tell the UCLA men’s and women’s teams, which
will live and die as one at the NCAA indoor finals beginning
today.

Four Bruin men and 13 women (including two alternates) have
already hit the track at the Randal Tyson Track Center to prepare
for the culmination of the indoor season. For the women, they send
a younger team compared to the last two years, which produced two
national champions.

“We’re real young,” women’s head coach
Jeanette Bolden said. “You never know what can happen with
the meet because people who do well at NCAAs are the people who
relax, have fun and aren’t really concerned about winning a
national title.”

One of those young athletes, freshman Monique Henderson, will be
running the first leg of the 4×400 meter relay race. Sophomores
Sani Roseby, Sheena Johnson and junior Tiffany Burgess join her on
the 4×400. The women’s team enters the meet ranked fifth in
the nation.

Henderson and Burgess will also run together on the distance
medley relay team along with junior Jessica Marr and sophomore Lena
Nilsson.

“It’s fun and an honor to make it as an
individual,” Burgess said, “but to make it on a relay,
to be with the girls that I came into the school with ““
Jessica Marr, Lena Nilsson, Monique Henderson ““ makes it all
the more special.”

Nilsson also qualified with the No. 5 time in the mile
(4:42.90).

Five other women will compete in field events: senior high
jumper Darnesha Griffith (No. 8 in the country at 6-0), junior
Chaniqua Ross (52-4 1/2, 17th) and sophomore Jessica Cosby (55-7,
2nd) in the shot put, junior weight thrower Cari Soong (66-8, 7th,
and senior pole vaulter Tracy O’Hara (14-3 1/4, 2nd).

“We don’t have as many people in the field as
we’ve had before,” Bolden said. “We might be the
defending champions, but we’re not the favorite going
in.”

But, as Marr explains, this shouldn’t hold the team back.
“It’s not that many people that are going, but everyone
that is going is quality.”

The men, too, have a team-oriented mindset, despite the fact
that they will send only four individuals to Arkansas.

“A lot of schools have a guy who’s really good, win
one event and score nothing else; that’s 10 points,”
men’s head coach Art Venegas said. “What I’m
challenging my guys to do is to get that point total beyond the
10.”

They appear to be getting the message. After shocking the MPSF
by winning the conference tournament Feb. 23, the Bruins learned
the power of teamwork.

There will be no upset this weekend. With only four athletes
competing, a team title is out of the question. Michael Lipscomb
doesn’t seem to care.

“Number one, I’m looking to show up big for
UCLA,” the sprinter said.

In his first year running indoor track, Lipscomb will run the
200 meters, having qualified with the eighth-best time in the
country (20.99).

“For a lot of other people, it could be nervous, but
I’m just 100 percent excited,” he said. “This is
my senior year, and if I decide not to run track and field anymore,
I won’t be able to run on an indoor track ever
again.”

The Bruins will have two representatives in the shot put ““
junior Scott Wiegand (64-7 3/4, No. 7 in the country) and sophomore
Dan Ames (62-5 3/4, 12th).

Senior Scott Moser will compete in the 35-pound weight throw
(70-10, 8th).

“That event is the toughest event in the NCAA right
now,” said Venegas. “Three outrageously talented
foreigners are leading the charge; it’s the strongest year in
the history of the event ever.”

With a strong team showing by both the men and the women, it
could be one of UCLA’s strongest indoor showings ever.