Gauntlet win reaffirms UCLA’s athletic prowess
By Taylor Brown
May 9, 2005 9:00 p.m.
When the UCLA men’s golf team finished fourth at the
Pac-10 Championships two weeks ago, the Bruins actually did
accomplish something.
They did something that UCLA fans relish, something that would
boost our student body’s morale regarding athletics if done
every year.
They beat ‘SC.
The fourth-place finish at the conference championship clinched
the Lexus Gauntlet for UCLA, as USC finished seventh in the
tournament.
Despite how anti-climactic such a “victory” can be,
it does prove one thing.
UCLA is better than USC. This is fact because Lexus deems it
so.
Very few people, however, seem to realize it.
After all, does winning the Lexus Gauntlet really grant one
school bragging rights over the other?
Well, maybe not in the past, when the margin between winner and
loser was so slim and questions arose around the validity of the
Gauntlet’s uneven point distribution and tiebreaker system.
Should women’s volleyball really count for as many points as
men’s football and basketball? And then there’s the
fact that USC doesn’t even field women’s softball and
gymnastics teams ““ two sports in which UCLA has been
unquestionably dominant.
In 2002, the Gauntlet’s first year, both schools finished
in a tie with 55 points each. USC won on tiebreakers.
In 2003, it was the same story, but UCLA won on tiebreakers.
Last year, USC won near the very end of the sports year, as the
Trojans won the crosstown showdown when their men’s tennis
team beat UCLA’s.
Every year, the head-to-head match-up has been so close and so
debatable that the Gauntlet itself has been, well, insignificant in
terms of which school really was more dominant athletically.
But this year’s different, because the Bruins are leading
70-40 in Gauntlet scoring.
That’s quite a large margin. Obviously, this is the first
time there has been any clear-cut winner in the Gauntlet
standings.
But again, nobody seems to realize how we’ve absolutely
dominated ‘SC this year. There’s no “buzz”
on campus. This paper hasn’t even mentioned it until now.
“Gauntlet? What’s that?” women’s gymnast
Emily Hanson quizzically remarked.
OK, so some students don’t even know what the thing
is.
Maybe it’s because of the Gauntlet’s faulty past.
And it’s only ever been clinched in the spring ““ after
basketball and football.
By that time, many casual fans just assume the Trojans have a
superior athletic program because of their national championship in
football.
Basically, the Gauntlet has just become a way of saying,
“Hey, you’re better,” without anyone even
realizing it.
But the student body should realize it. They should realize how
the USC athletic program is quickly turning into a one-dimensional,
football-oriented machine.
And when it comes to football, UCLA falls back on this
inferiority complex of, “Well, we’re a basketball
school,” or, “Well, we got in.”
True, we are a “basketball school” (and we did
“get in”).
But more than that, the Bruins are national contenders in
virtually every other varsity sport. UCLA is arguably the most
athletically enriched school in the nation.
This gives us the right to possess a certain swagger and
cockiness, especially when it comes to comparing ourselves to
USC.
Freshman Gabrielle Domanic of the women’s water polo team
told the Daily Bruin at the beginning of March, “As long as
I’m here, I’m going to make a point that USC
doesn’t win a national title.”
I thought it was great.
Playing USC in any sport is all about intensity. This is one of
the top rivalries in the nation. Sure, one has to maintain a
certain level of “class,” but all athletes should share
the same passion Domanic has when it comes to playing the Trojans.
Not to say that all athletes don’t, but when it comes to
playing USC, there should be no love lost, no punches held.
UCLA shouldn’t necessarily require the Gauntlet to
reaffirm its athletic superiority.
But it sure is a nice reminder to have.
E-mail Brown at [email protected].
