PALO ALTO “”mdash; For junior pole vaulter Pat Luke, the second
half of Saturday’s NCAA West Regionals meet was spent
receiving congratulations and hugs. The praise wasn’t for
winning ““ that was taken care of by BYU’s Robinson
Pratt ““ but for placing fifth. For Luke, fifth wasn’t
so bad. It meant qualifying for the national meet as an athlete who
wasn’t even ranked in the top 25 nationally before the
meet.
“To be honest, I thought that I wasn’t going to make
it to the top five,” Luke said, “But anything can
happen I guess. I just feel so excited about qualifying for
nationals, now I have to get ready and train hard.”
Luke was one of six to clear 17 feet, 7 inches. Three vaulters
passed the height before, and by virtue of having the fewest missed
attempts, he was in the lead. Already earning a personal record,
Luke needed to beat one athlete by either clearing the height or
having one of the two vaulters who had cleared 17-3 (BYU’s
Trent Powell and Idaho State’s Paul Litchfield) not
clear.
Luke missed, and Litchfield made his third attempt, but Powell
did not and Luke finished in the top five.
“I really thought that if I was going to make it, I was
going to have to jump higher,” Luke said. “And after I
missed my third attempt it was hard, especially when it’s out
of your control like that. Glad I made it in.”
Though Luke wasn’t supposed to make it, pole vaulting
coach Anthony Curran did not to dismiss him immediately.
“Luke wasn’t on the list of shoo-ins our coaches had
put together,” Curran said. “But I told
them I thought we should add him to the list, and that I felt
pretty confident that he could make it. He’s had the best
workouts of his career and now it’s paying off.”
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Two of UCLA’s top distance runners, sophomores Ben Aragon
and Erik Emilsson, are injured. Aragon, who competes in both the
800- and the 1500-meters, suffers from a high ankle sprain
which he sustained during the physical 1500m final at the Pac-10
Championships. Deciding to ignore the injury, Aragon also competed
in the 800-meters at Pac-10s, which may have caused more problems
in his other foot. He attempted to compete this weekend in the
1500, despite the injury, but failed to make it past the
preliminaries.
“What I’m most proud of that he went out there and
showed some courage,” distance coach Eric Peterson said.
“It would have been easy for him to not run, but he’s
been one of our leaders on the track and so for him to come out to
show that he’s capable of competing is important.”
Emilsson, UCLA’s top Steeplechaser, is also suffering from
an injury sustained during Pac-10s.
Had either been healthy for this meet, both athletes would have
likely qualified for the national meet.
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For the second time in two meets, the 4×100 relay team was
disqualified in the preliminaries.
Two weeks ago, in the Pac-10 championship at USC, the team was
disqualified for an illegal pass between the first and second legs
of the relay. Friday, the same problem arose, but this time between
the third and fourth legs of the race. Senior John McCauley, senior
Marques Burrus, freshman Chauncee Smith and sophomore Jonathan
Williams will now have all off-season to practice their
handoffs.