In their last meeting, Kevin Craddock and Brandon Johnson were each edged out by their rival Trojan counterparts. After Sunday, the UCLA duo left no doubt that they are the top hurdlers in the conference.
Two weeks after leaving USC with a bad taste in their mouths, the UCLA hurdle corps came out in grand fashion over the weekend, winning two Pac-10 individual titles to lead the No. 15 Bruins at the conference championships in Palo Alto.
The Bruins overall finished in fourth place with 92 points, while Oregon narrowly won the team championship with 114 points, just three points ahead of Arizona State.
In the 110-meter high hurdles, Craddock blew away the field to win in a time of 13.48 seconds, a new personal best for the sophomore from the Bay Area. Freshman teammate Darius Reed finished second in 13.88, leading a Bruin one-two finish in the high hurdles. The time for Craddock moves him into second on the national list and is also the No. 3 mark all-time at UCLA.
“We really were not that surprised so much with his time; he was due,” sprints coach Tony Veney said of his star high hurdler. “We haven’t had three good weeks of practice because of his sickness and injuries until these past weeks. … He is now realizing what we always thought he should be doing.”
In the 400m hurdles, senior All-American Brandon Johnson returned to form by winning his signature event in 50.03 after being edged out in the same race two weeks ago by USC’s Kai Kelley.
“At USC, Brandon didn’t necessarily run too fast, he ran too hard,” Veney said. “When you run too hard, you’re literally fighting yourself making technical mistakes. Today, Brandon had a completely different mind-set. He let the race come to him.”
Johnson won his second Pac-10 400m hurdle title, having won the event during his sophomore season.
The Bruins also had a strong showing in the field with two individual event winners.
On Saturday, junior Greg Garza brought home the title in the discus, popping a huge throw of 208 feet 11 inches on his last attempt, good enough to make him the national leader in that event while also moving him to No. 2 on the all-time UCLA list.
In the jumps, Michael Johnson captured his first ever Pac-10 title as he placed first in the triple jump. The junior won with a leap of 51-4.25, a new season-best mark.
NOTES: Mike Landers finished in third place in the pole vault, clearing 17-6.5. Oregon’s Tommy Skipper made his season debut, winning with a jump of 17-10.5 … Austin Ramos ran a lifetime best and NCAA-qualifying time of 29:12.84 to place fourth in the 10,000m, just five seconds behind the winner, Galen Rupp of Oregon … in the hammer, Boldizsar Kocsor finished fourth with a throw of 214-6 while Andrew Ninow threw 199-2 to place sixth.