W. track: UCLA’s Harper runs personal best

Nobody has beaten USC’s Virginia Powell in the short
hurdles this season, but UCLA’s Dawn Harper came awfully
close on Sunday afternoon. Harper, an All-American last season,
stuck with Powell from when she left starting blocks until she
crossed the finish line, taking second place in a personal-best
12.91 seconds. It was the fourth fastest collegiate time in the
nation so far this season, and it was just .16 seconds shy of
Powell’s time. “It’s nice to run against good
competition, but I wasn’t worried about (Powell),”
Harper said. “I was worried about running my race.”
Overshadowed the past two years by two-time NCAA champion Sheena
Johnson, Harper has emerged as a force in the hurdles this season.
She took third place in the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor
Championships behind Powell and Nebraska’s Priscilla Lopes,
and is looking to challenge those two again in the 100-meter
hurdles at NCAAs again next month. Sunday’s race represented
a significant step in that process for Harper, whose season best
was 13.11 seconds coming into the race. And though she
couldn’t quite match Powell, Harper hasn’t given up
hope that she may be able to do it on collegiate track’s
biggest stage in a few weeks. “This year I’ve been
injured all year, so my times are progressing more slowly,”
Harper said. “I’m feeling confident. Things are coming
together.”

THE WAITING GAME: A 10-minute delay prior to the women’s
200 meters didn’t keep UCLA’s Monique Henderson from
defending her conference title. But Henderson, who also won the 400
meters, did say that waiting for officials to determine what lane
each athlete was to run in contributed to her rather pedestrian
time of 23.06 seconds. “It did have some effect on us,”
she said. “It cooled us down, and made us lose our
focus.”

NOT QUIT IN HER: Unable to run anywhere close to full speed
after injuring her left hamstring midway through the second
preliminary race in the 1500 meters, UCLA’s Olga Aulet-Leon
refused to give up hope. The freshman limped through the last two
laps, staggered across the finish line in last place, and collapsed
into the arms of a trainer, who helped carry her off the track.
Though Aulet-Leon’s time was 40 seconds shy of a personal
best, UCLA distance coach Eric Peterson was impressed with her
effort. “There was never a moment in her mind as tough as she
is and as competitive as she is where she thought about
stopping,” he said. “It says something about her
character. She’s a very good competitor, and I think it
showed even in defeat.”