The UCLA women’s track and field team cannot win a
national championship when it heads to Stanford to compete in the
NCAA West Regionals today and Saturday.
It can, however, lose it.
Since the No. 3 Bruins are already a bit of a long shot in the
national title chase behind favorites LSU and Texas, they cannot
afford to have any major qualifying slip-ups if they hope to
finally exorcise their championship demons this year.
“We have six top athletes who will determine how far the
team goes,” UCLA distance coach Eric Peterson said.
“The way they perform will have a huge impact for
us.”
Those six Bruins ““ middle-distance runner Lena Nilsson,
sprinter Monique Henderson, hurdler Sheena Johnson, and throwers
Chaniqua Ross, Jessica Cosby and Cari Soong ““ should score
the bulk of the points for the squad at the NCAA Championships in
Sacramento.
Consequently all six must first qualify ““ a task that is
now decidedly more complicated because of the new regional
format.
Instead of using individual qualifying standards ““ in
which athletes have to meet a set mark ““ to determine the
make-up of the NCAA field, the new system shifts the emphasis to
head-to-head competition.
Thousands of the top collegiate track and field athletes in the
nation will descend upon one of four regional sites, with the top
five finishers in each event qualifying for Nationals. In addition,
six wild card entrants will be selected in each event based on
their season-long performance.
“It’s going to be good for the spectators, but for
the athletes it’s tough,” UCLA women’s coach
Jeanette Bolden said. “We’ve had to completely readjust
our training cycle simply because of regionals.”
Of the Bruins’ six top performers, all should qualify in
their respective events if they perform up to their
capabilities.
The rest of UCLA’s 19-member squad will have to work
considerably harder. A host of potential national scorers including
Ysanne Williams (400-meter hurdles), Chelsea Johnson (pole vault),
and Candice Baucham (triple jump) each have a good chance to
qualify for the Nationals, but will need extraordinary outings in
Sacramento to help the team on the scoreboard.
With the 11th best national mark in the long hurdles, Williams
has perhaps the best chance to help the team in Sacramento. But she
““ like all of her teammates ““ must first survive
regional qualifying this weekend.
“We were all recruited to score points at
nationals,” Williams said. “That’s my job, and
that’s what I am going to try to do.”
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The decision to switch to the new regional format was wrought
with controversy, and UCLA was right in the middle of the
upheaval.
Bolden and men’s head coach Art Venegas were among a large
group of high-profile coaches who were dead set against the
addition of regional championships to the track and field
slate.
“It was a controversial decision,” said Boston
College Associate Athletic Director John Kane, the chairman of the
NCAA Track and Field Committee. “It was closer than
Bush-Gore. Both sides were very passionate.”
The new regional format had been bandied about the halls of the
NCAA offices for over a decade, however, it picked up steam in the
past few years. Ultimately the track and field coaches association
decided to approve the changes last year in order to allow more
athletes the chance to compete in the playoff format.
But the changes could be a detriment to the sport as well.
Although it provides four huge meets in which the fans can take
part, it also lengthens the season for the athletes. The change
also detracts from the conference meet because athletes are forced
to train through the weekend in order to peak in time for
regionals.
“We had reservations about it because it diminishes from
the conference championship,” said Pac-10 spokesman Jim
Muldoon. “That’s our biggest concern.”
Despite the controversy, the NCAA expects to keep the changes in
place for at least the next several years.
“I don’t see this as a one-year thing,” Kane
said. “We’re going to re-evaluate it and see how it
goes, but this will be a fixture for the foreseeable
future.”