The UCLA men’s track and field team’s chance to
defend its West Regional title blew away over the weekend, as the
howling winds in Eugene, Ore., proved to be the winds of change for
an unfortunate Yoo Kim.
Kim, the runner-up at the NCAA Championships in the pole vault
as a junior last year, no-heighted on Saturday, ending his UCLA
career and costing him a berth in this year’s NCAAs.
Long before Kim entered the competition, the wind was already a
factor, briefly forcing the vaulters to stop warming up. By the
time Kim began vaulting, however, conditions had worsened.
“The wind affected the people coming in late,” Kim
said. “As the lightning came, it brought the wind.
That’s just the way it goes sometimes. I still think I should
have made it. It was one of the situations I felt I had no control
over.”
Officials, who considered turning the pit so that the wind was
at the vaulters’ backs, were helpless to step in, as meet
rules dictated that the pit remain in its original orientation.
“They were going to switch it because it became way too
strong,” Kim said. “When it first started it was sunny
and there was a slight head wind, but later it became almost
dangerous. It was the worst I’ve been in.”
It wasn’t only Kim who was affected. Twelve of the 23
competitors were unable to record a height; Oregon’s Tommy
Skipper, the defending NCAA champion, also no-heighted in front of
his home fans and will be absent from NCAAs at Sacramento in two
weeks.
“There were several of the top national guys in the
competition that didn’t make it,” said pole vault coach
Anthony Curran. “It was difficult to see some of the top
athletes fall out of the NCAAs. It was hard to watch Skipper;
everyone wants to see the No. 1 and No. 2 compete against each
other in the championships.”
Kim’s miscue was just one of the reasons it will be
difficult for UCLA to meet its preseason goal of a top-five finish
at NCAAs. Jonathan Williams suffered a fall in the prelims of the
110-meter hurdles on Friday, and none of UCLA’s three triple
jumpers came close to qualifying on Saturday.
One of the few bright spots for UCLA was the performance of
senior Jon Rankin, who won the 1500m and placed second in the 800m
after a premature celebration that cost him the lead in the final
30 meters. Rankin will concentrate solely on the 1500 for
nationals, since the Bruins almost certainly will not be a factor
in the national title race.
“I can guarantee that if the team race was on the line, he
would do both,” distance coach Eric Peterson said. “Now
what we’re fighting for is a top-five spot. At this point in
time for him and the team, it would be best for him to focus on the
1500.”
In all, eight Bruins automatically qualified for the NCAA meet
by finishing in the top five of their respective events, a list
including Craig Everhart in the 400m, Brandon Johnson and Jonathan
Williams in the 400m hurdles, Martell Munguia in the 800m, Erik
Emilsson in the steeple chase and Tony Golston in the 110m
hurdles.
Unable to earn an automatic berth was the 4×400-meter relay team
after Johnson collided with Oregon’s A.K. Ikwuakor in the
exchange area, dropping the baton in the process. UCLA finished
fourth, but is expected to receive an at-large bid based on its
season-best marks from the national list.
“It was chaos,” Johnson said. “It was raining
and windy, freezing cold. We should be able to get in,
though.”
With reports from Jessica Bach, Bruin Sports staff.