Women’s track hosts meet
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Think the UCLA men’s basketball and volleyball teams are the
only top-ranked squads on campus?
Think again.
After two consecutive third-place finishes at the NCAA outdoor
Championships, the UCLA women’s track and field team has been
picked by Track and Field News to end Louisiana State’s reign atop
the NCAA in 1995.
Saturday, the Bruins will open the outdoor season with one of
only two home meets this year, a quadrangular event at Drake
Stadium featuring UCLA, UCSB, Long Beach State and Cal State Los
Angeles.
"In different events, we’ll have good competition," UCLA head
coach Jeanette Bolden said. "I think we have a lot of depth, but at
the same time we won’t have anybody in the shot put, so we’ll have
to make up those points in other places."
The reason that Bolden, in her second year at the helm, will not
be able to depend on her shot putting crew is that throwing coach
Art Venegas has decided to bring Dawn Dumble, Valeyta Althouse and
Nada Kawar to the Wyoming Indoor Invitational in Laramie.
The Bruins will also be without the services of All-Americans
Erin Blunt (hurdles) and Camille Noel (sprints), both of whom are
nursing injuries. Blunt, who redshirted last season with bad knees,
is suffering from a minor strain in her foot and Noel is still
recovering from hip surgery in November.
Nevertheless, UCLA will feature defending NCAA indoor champion
Amy Acuff in the high jump. Acuff, a sophomore, broke her own
school record last week with a leap of 6-feet, 3 1/4-inches at the
Fairfax Indoor Invitational in Virginia.
Freshman thrower Suzy Powell  the 1994 Track and Field
News Women’s High School Athlete of the Year  will make her
much-anticipated debut, competing in the discus and the
javelin.
Senior All-American Shelia Burrell will return to the 100-meter
hurdles and both relays after she was forced to redshirt last
season with aching knees, and senior Karen Hecox  the
defending NCAA champion in the 3,000 – will open the season in the
800 alongside sophomore Cicely Scott.
Field events begin at 11:45 a.m. while track events don’t begin
until 1:30 p.m.