SACRAMENTO “”mdash; As the NCAA Championships meet progressed,
one question became a centerpiece around the UCLA men’s track
and field team.
What happened?
But no definitive answers could be drawn as the Bruins, who
entered the competition ranked fourth with a projected 34 points,
slowly eroded away and finished 19th with 14.5 points.
For some, the tough competition at a national level may have
simply been too much, while others look at the increase of
qualifying rounds. But the most apparent limitation was the new
addition of a regional meet and its adverse affect of timing the
national meet concurrently with final exams at UCLA.
“I saw a lot of them off balance and rattled, which is not
how they’ve been at other NCAA meets,” UCLA head coach
Art Venegas said. “What concerns me is not that they
didn’t win some of these titles, but why so off?
They’re telling me they couldn’t feel anything out
there.”
“I know they were studying and taking tests, and normally
I’m the type of guy that would say “˜just go do it and
get your work done,’ but they all looked rattled. No one
looked on.”
Signs of problems first began, in the 400m hurdles semi-finals,
where senior Kyle Erickson failed to qualify for the finals with
his time of 50.07. But even though Erickson was ranked among the
top 12 hurdlers in the nation, for the No. 7 intermediate hurdler
not to advance was neither unlikely nor was it the highlight of the
teams troubles.
More unforeseeable was the pole vault final. Sophomore Yoo Kim,
considered the top competing pole vaulter, had been clearing over
18 feet and was the Bruins most probable title contender. But Kim
shocked audiences after three unsuccessful attempts at 17-10 which
eliminated him from the competition and put him tied for fifth
place.
“What can I say, I just did bad,” Kim said. “I
thought everything was going on pace until my calve cramped up, but
I don’t want to use that as an excuse. That’s what
makes the meet so hard. When I first started, I felt really good.
But that’s just the way it goes.”
“Unfortunately on his first attempt he should have made it
and that would have put him in the lead,” pole vault coach
Anthony Curran added, “but then the next two jumps, his calve
cramped up on him. When you have any kind of a muscle cramp on you
it’s really tough to come back from. It’s just really
unfortunate to have that happen to him at this meet.”
But while Kim and Erickson struggled, the biggest symbol of the
meet’s difficulties came in Saturday’s discus finals.
Junior Dan Ames, a 2002 All-America, finished 12th in the finals,
with a throw of 173-3, over 20 feet shorter than his season
average. Ames had previously won the event at the Regional meet in
Stanford, the Pac-10 championships and the USC-UCLA dual meet, and
should have placed in the top five.
“It wasn’t until the disaster in the discus that I
stepped back and looked at everything that went wrong,”
Venegas said. “I thought if (Ames) could get in the top three
we would be OK, and that would give us a decent score.”
Without the big finish in the discus the Bruins hoped for, it
became clear the weekend wasn’t what they had expected.
Instead, the team, still searching for answers, reflected on its
achievements throughout the season.
“Overall, the team (this) year was a successful team. We
developed some kids that had never been to the show and they
started to perform, knowing they were returning,” Venegas
said. “If they had hit it here, I would have thought
wonderful success for the year. I’m disappointed with some of
the results here, but next year we’ll hopefully be in the top
five.”