Track team impresses in outdoor home-opener
Men cruise to easy
quad-meet victory
without superstars
without superstarsquad-meet victory
By Tim Costner
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With a good part of the team away in Laramie competing in the
Wyoming Indoor Invitational, the UCLA men’s track team still had
enough depth to prevail in its outdoor season opener on Saturday at
Drake Stadium.
Easily topping UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Los Angeles and Long
Beach State in dual meet scoring, the Bruins also won handily in
quadrangular scoring, beating its nearest competitor  the
49ers  82-42.
UCLA thrower Greg Hodel held down the fort for the Bruins,
winning the shotput (55 feet, 1 1/2 inches), the discus (164-4) and
the hammer (199-2), while UCLA won 10 out of 18 events overall.
"It was opportunity for some of the guys who are more hidden to
show what they can do," UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said. "It brings
the team together. We’ve always been about having depth on the team
and having a closeness on the team. We also had a lot freshman
competing for us, so we wanted to see what they could do."
Bruin freshman Gerimi Burleigh won the 110-meter hurdles with a
time of 14.78, while other winners for the Bruins included Greg
Johnson in the javelin (232-10), Thomas Ganda in the long jump
(22-8), Dave Rynearson in the pole vault (16-4 3/4), Brian
Gastellum in the 3000m (8:21.98) and Mike Terry in the 1500m
(3:56.65).
UCLA sprinter Ibrahim Hassan opened this weekend in the 4 x 100m
relay, but could not compete in his strongest event  the 400m
 because of a minor groin injury.
"He looked fine in the relay," Larsen said. "But he got the
stick a little far back to catch the leader. We were going to run
him in the 4 x 400 but his groin was a little too sore."
Injuries have been a problem for the Bruins lately, although the
season is still at an early enough stage for the team to
recover.
"We’ve got a few injuries, including both intermediate hurdlers
and Gentry Bradley," Larsen said. "Gentry is a real key right now,
so we hope to have him back pretty soon."
The Bruins will only have one more home meet this season Â
on April 8 Â although the team will compete throughout the
season at numerous local meets.
* * *
Results from the Wyoming meet were not available at press
time.