A change in the criteria for how athletes qualify for the Pac-10
Championships did not seem to faze any of the track and field
coaches gathered at a pre-meet luncheon Wednesday in the J.D.
Morgan Center. To be eligible to compete in a particular event at
the conference meet prior to this season, all athletes needed to
meet a specific qualifying standard. But at this weekend’s
Pac-10 Championships, coaches can select up to 24 athletes to enter
the meet regardless of their previous season-best marks. “I
don’t think our team will be any different than if there were
qualifying standards,” said Washington State coach Rick
Sloan, an All-American pole vaulter at UCLA in the 1960s.
“I’m sure some of the teams will be slightly different,
but ours is pretty much the way it would have been.” The
change had virtually no effect on either the UCLA men’s or
women’s teams. Neither Bruin squad entered an athlete in an
event that he or she had not competed in already this year. OREGON
STATE RETURNS: Sixteen years after its last appearance in the
Pac-10 Championships, the newly reinstated Oregon State
women’s track and field team will return to the conference
meet this weekend. The Beavers, who discontinued their men’s
and women’s programs in 1988, will bring seven female
distance runners including Ashley Younce, the 15th-ranked entrant
in the 5,000m coming into the meet. Though Oregon State probably
will not score a point this weekend, they are eager to compete.
“I sat down with each of the ladies and found out if this was
something they wanted to do,” Oregon State coach Kelly
Sullivan said. “I made sure they understood how big of a meet
this is, and they all wanted to do it. They are going to be nervous
because it is such a great conference and meet, but I think they
are also going into it with the right frame of mind, to run
hard.”
ODDS AND ENDS: USC’s Lionel Larry, one of the top young
quarter-milers in the nation, will miss the rest of the season due
to a hamstring pull. … Oregon phenom Galen Rupp will compete in
the 5,000m.