Men’s track falls in dual meet
By Jill Sager
May 3, 2009 11:43 p.m.
Heading into the final race of the day, the Bruins found themselves down 87-71, a huge margin relative to this rivalry.
And then a dropped baton clinched the meet for the Trojans.
“This is not an event where you drop the baton,” coach Art Venegas said of the 4×400-meter relay. “They had the better team going in, but you want to fight it out to the wire. You don’t want to let a dropped baton give you the loss.”
It was not just the miscue that enabled USC to defeat UCLA, 92-71. The 75th annual Dual Meet produced the largest margin of victory between the schools in the past four years. It was also the first time in history both Trojan track and field squads defeated the Bruins in the same season.
“It’s definitely disappointing to lose the team result my senior year,” redshirt senior Boldizsar Kocsor said. “It’s only happened three out of 28 years, so it’s unfortunate.”
Heading into the last two events of the day, the score was 79-70 in favor of the Trojans. To win the meet, the Bruins would have had to hold USC to a third place in the triple jump and win the 4x400m relay.
The Trojans, though, took first and second in the triple jump and won the relay on the Bruins’ baton drop, which sealed the win.
“Realistically on paper, they looked a little better going into the meet,” Venegas said. “Being at home, they really pulled it off very strongly.”
After losing the 4x100m relay at the start of the meet, the Bruins knew they would have ground to make up. There looked like there might be a window of opportunity when top USC sprinter Ahmad Rashad false started and was disqualified in the 100m.
But the team could not convert.
“We had a couple mess-ups where we shouldn’t have,” said sophomore Taylor Hobson, one of three Bruins to jump in three separate events. “When it came down to it, we just didn’t have as good of a meet as we did in Oregon.”
Two weeks ago, the Bruins came within five points of upsetting the No. 1 Ducks, but they struggled to repeat that success.
“Today was a lot more difficult than Oregon,” Hobson said. “There weren’t many people in the high jump, so it was really tough having to go back and forth, especially at the end.”
Hobson did not hold back, however, as he led the way with a win in the long jump and second place in the high jump.
“Taylor Hobson’s been phenomenal all year,” Venegas said. “He did another great job again.”
Freshman Nelson Rosario also jumped in all three events, as did sophomore Jonathan Clark, who took third in both the high jump and the triple jump.
The Bruins also swept the 5,000m and the steeplechase.
Sophomore Kent Morikawa finished the 5,000m in 14 minutes, 35.92 seconds to lead all competitors, and fellow sophomore Dylan Knight won the steeplechase with a season-best time of 8:53.61.
“We felt strong coming in,” Morikawa said. “We went out there and just held onto the lead as long as we could. … It felt great to be in front of an ‘SC crowd and sweep.”
Also posting wins for the Bruins was Kocsor in the hammer throw, sophomore Cory Primm in the 800m, and redshirt sophomores Bo Taylor and Greg Woepse in the shot put and pole vault, respectively.
“We had some very good performances,” Venegas said. “Their kids had a great meet. You can’t take away from all those lifetime bests they were executing, and you have to win the meet on the track and the field.”
