It’s something no member of the UCLA women’s track
and field team has ever experienced before, and it’s not a
position they’re eager to be in again.
Yet, as the Bruins gathered together on the infield at Drake
Stadium and watched Stanford receive the Pac-10 Championship trophy
on Sunday afternoon, most of the team had already begun to put the
setback behind them.
Though UCLA’s eight-year run of consecutive conference
titles ended after a disappointing second-place finish, the
defending national champion Bruins weren’t too distraught
because they have bigger goals in mind.
“We’re bigger than Pac-10s,” UCLA’s
Chelsea Johnson said. I’m looking to NCAA’s for us.
People might be surprised that we lost today, but don’t be
surprised in a few weeks when we win.”
No one should be too surprised that the second-ranked Bruins
came up nearly 50 points shy of first-place Stanford because UCLA
simply doesn’t have the depth to compete with the Cardinal at
the conference level this year.
Stanford’s foundation is its balance this season. The
Bruins are built on star power.
So while Johnson, Monique Henderson, Jessica Cosby, and Candice
Baucham combined for five individual conference titles and 66 of
the team’s 125 points, it wasn’t nearly enough for UCLA
to overcome Stanford’s collection of talented sprinters,
jumpers and distance runners.
“The thing that we’re missing this year is the depth
of talent,” UCLA assistant coach Eric Peterson said.
“We realize that the sport is cyclical, but we wish that our
bottom cycle hadn’t hit when we were hosting the Pac-10
Championships. We did the things that we usually do, but this year
we’re probably a better national meet team because we really
count on star power.”
It probably would have taken a near-flawless performance for the
Bruins to maintain their stranglehold on the conference, but it
didn’t help UCLA that Stanford rarely missed an opportunity
to score.
Already boasting a 15-point lead after the first day of the
meet, the Cardinal extended that advantage immediately on Sunday,
scoring a combined 31 points in the 4×100-meter relay, the 1500m
and the 400m.
UCLA, buoyed by Henderson’s victories in the 200 and 400
meters and sophomore Kamaiya Warren’s stunning victory in the
discus, closed to within 11 points of the lead.
But that’s as close as the Bruins would get to
Stanford.
Ashley Freeman took second in the 800 meters. Undine Becker won
the 400m hurdles. Erica McLain jumped a meet-record 45 feet, 2
inches to take the triple jump. And then Sara Bei and Alicia Craig
clinched the Cardinal victory by sweeping the top-two spots in the
5000 meters.
“We all wanted to do better,” Henderson said,
“but like the coaches said, we have bigger fish to
fry.”
Said UCLA’s Dawn Harper, “It lets the younger ones
know that we’re not just going to win every time.”
Even UCLA coach Jeanette Bolden had already begun to put this
setback behind her as she walked off the track and into the Acosta
Center to meet with her team.
Bolden joked that the last time she failed to win the Pac-10
Championship ““ a third place finish also at home at Drake
Stadium in 1996 ““ it was the start of an unprecedented
eight-year winning streak.
“I hugged Stanford coach (Edrick Floreal),” Bolden
said, “and his assistant coach pulled him aside. He said
she’s hugging you now, but she’s ready to go on another
run.