Monday, May 13, 1996
WSU wins first points of meet, Bruins tuning-upBy Emmanuelle
Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
The Pacific 10 Championships have officially begun and after the
decathlon weekend at Drake Stadium, Washington State earned its
first 10 points behind the solid effort of Leo Slack.
Slack was no slouch, finishing at least second in eight events
and finishing fifth in the remaining two. Slack tallied a total of
7,723 points which was just 200 points better than the second place
finish of Oregon’s Ray Livingston with California’s Ross Bomben
following in with 7,526 points.
It was a tight competition between Slack and Livingston.
Livingston owned the lead after the first two events  the
100-meters and the long jump. Through most of the events the lead
belonged to Slack, but after clearing 16-0 3/4 in the pole vault
 the eighth event  Livingston earned 880 points for his
efforts while Slack could only manage to clear 14-9 for 760 points.
Livingston reclaimed the lead by only three points.
Slack would retake the lead in the next event, winning the
javelin with 664 points and secured his win with a finish ahead of
Livingston in the final event, 1,500 meters.
Rounding out the rest of the field were Dominic Johnson of
Arizona (7,191), Stanford’s Josh Gleason (7,013) and Oregon’s Paul
Pappas (6,986).
Although there are eight scoring places, only six athletes
competed in the decathlon. No UCLA track athletes competed at Drake
this weekend.
***
A handful of Bruins were in Modesto Saturday hoping to get marks
that would improve their national standing and secure a spot at the
NCAA championships. However, although the results were sound, there
was nothing extraordinary to be found in central California.
"(There was) nothing spectacular  we were fairly steady,
it wasn’t one of those great meets but it wasn’t a bad meet," UCLA
throwing coach Art Venegas said. "I think the kids will be real
hungry for the Pac-10s, especially the shot putters. They are
really, really aggressive after this meet I think that they will
have a great meet. We are looking forward to the Pac-10s."
As they should, as it will be the last chance for some athletes
to secure a chance to compete at NCAAs.
As usual, Jonathan Ogden and Mark Parlin were the top two
collegiate finishers in the shot put. Ogden threw 62-3, while
Parlin finished behind Ogden with a 61-11 1/4.
The Bruins finished in the top two spots in the discus as well.
Luke Sullivan is currently ranked 18th in the event, but only the
top 16 compete at nationals. Although Sullivan won on Saturday,
Mother Nature did not help his cause, providing no wind to help
carry the discus. Sullivan’s throw of 185-3 did not raise his
standings. David Dumble finished second with a 185-4.
While most of the UCLA competitors were in the field events, one
runner did compete for UCLA.
Avery Anderson, who has missed a few races due to injury, used
Modesto to get more race experience behind him as Pac-10s
approach.
Anderson finished with a legal wind season-best of 14.08, which
is just four one-hundredths of a second off the provisional
qualifying mark.
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
UCLA’s Luke Sullivan is No. 18 in the nation in the discus, but
needs to pull into the top 16 to qualify for NCAAs.