M. track: Scuffle erupts following meet

There’s always been plenty of emotion at the annual
UCLA-USC dual meet, and that intensity finally boiled over
following the 4×400-meter relay Saturday afternoon at USC’s
Cromwell Field in Loker Stadium.

Immediately after USC eked out a hotly contested victory in the
mile relay, a few of the sprinters on both teams began jawing with
one another. The post-meet fracas escalated into a brief shoving
match as dozens of athletes from both sides rushed to the aid of
their teammates before coaches and officials could restore
order.

Details regarding who actually instigated the scuffle vary, but
most accounts put UCLA sprinter Brandon Johnson at the center of
the melee.

“It was disgraceful,” UCLA sprints coach Tony Veney
said. “All I saw was Brandon being excited that we won the
meet. He became too boisterous for ‘SC and the next thing I
know I’m running over there to stop them. It’s a
disgraceful end to what was a hard-fought meet.”

The meet seemed to reach its emotional apex on the last leg of
the 4×400-meter relay, even though the Bruins had already clinched
the overall victory in the dual meet in the previous event. The
crowd roared as USC’s Marvin Anderson and UCLA’s Craig
Everhart powered down the final straightaway, and members of both
squads stood along the track rooting their teammates on.

At the end of the race USC reveled in its victory in the relay,
the Bruins began to celebrate their win in the meet, and tempers
flared.

“It was so emotional,” Johnson said. “They
were celebrating and we were trying to celebrate our victory and
all of a sudden they just surrounded me. I didn’t know what
was going on until I looked around and saw red everywhere. I was
looking at my teammates, and I think emotion just took over
me.”

UCLA men’s track and field coach Art Venegas said he would
not be adverse to handing down suspensions if indeed one of his
Bruins instigated the fight. But as of Saturday he did not know the
specifics, saying he would investigate the incident further with
USC’s coaching staff.

“Both programs have to be more cognizant of the emotions
that are there at the end of a close meet,” Venegas said.
“As big as the city is, it’s too small for both of
these two schools. Our job as coaches is to explain to the athletes
that they have to be more careful.”

The scuffle marred a dramatic mile relay that saw several lead
changes in the course of the four laps, and a riveting duel on the
last leg of the race. USC won the event in 3 minutes, 5.31 seconds,
while UCLA timed in at 3 minutes and 6.25 seconds, a second slower
than its fastest time this season.

That the Bruins were within reach of setting a season-best mark
in the mile relay is in large part due to the performance of
Everhart, who was returning to the track for the first time since
sustaining a hamstring injury in San Diego last weekend.

But Everhart had a tough day overall. He also finished second in
the 400 meters behind USC freshman Lionel Larry, an outstanding
prep quarter-miler who the Bruins heavily recruited last year but
failed to keep from signing with the rival Trojans.

“I told him that if he didn’t come to UCLA and he
decided to go to USC we were going to either run right over him or
fly right over him,” Everhart said.

“The (injury) that I had prevented that today, so
I’m not worried.”

After the day’s somewhat disappointing performances for
the sprint squad, Veney said they will have to go back the drawing
board. But with the upcoming Pac-10 meet being hosted by UCLA in
two weeks and then the NCAA Regionals just on the horizon, Everhart
and the rest of the Bruin sprinters will see the Trojans again.

“If they think that’s all we got or they have some
type of edge over us, they have a whole other thing coming at
Pac-10s and Regionals,” Everhart said. “We’re
going to do more than smoke then, we’re going to set them on
fire.”