It would have taken a near flawless performance to win, but
unfortunately for the UCLA men’s track and field team,
perfection was not in the cards this weekend.
In a combination of disqualifications and errors, the Bruins
took home a disappointing fourth place in the Pac-10 Championships
behind host USC, Stanford and Oregon.
“We really need everything to be perfect and for things to
go wrong for other teams,” head coach Art Venegas said.
“It’s happened before for us, but this time it
didn’t”
From the meet’s start on Saturday, problems ensued when,
in two separate events, Bruin participants were disqualified. In
the 4×100-meter relay preliminaries, the team was ruled ineligible
due to an illegal pass between the first and second legs. Then in
the 400m hurdles prelims, sophomore Anthony Golston, who would have
been in the finals, was disqualified for a trailing left leg in the
sixth hurdle. Those potential points would have been invaluable for
the Bruins, who finished only 16 points out of first.
More complications occurred in yesterday’s 1500m final,
when sophomore Ben Aragon found himself in the midst of a highly
physical third lap. Aragon, the conference leader, was in a high
speed shoving match with Stanford’s Grant Robinson, which
caught him off guard and lead him to a fourth place finish. No foul
was called which prevented any formal protest by the Bruins.
“I don’t believe there was intentional
shoving,” distance coach Eric Peterson said. “But I
know the contact was a surprise to Aragon, which leads me to
believe the contact came from behind. I talked to the officials
afterward and he told me why there was no flag called. After that,
it’s a done deal.”
Despite the team setbacks, there were several significant
contributions.
Junior Dan Ames lead the men’s team with a total of 26
points, after winning both titles in both the discus and shot put,
and finishing third in the hammer with a personal record.
“This weekend has definitely added another notch to my
belt,” Ames responded after asked if the meet was his best
day on the track. “I scored exactly the amount of points I
wanted. And whereas I normally feel more confident in the shot,
today I felt just as confident in the discus.”
Junior Juaune Armon also won a individual title Saturday in the
long jump, edging out USC’s Allen Simms by a quarter inch in
26-1, which was also a season best for him. Simms had originally
led by 3/10 of an inch.
“There’s no way I was going to lose to Simms by that
much,” Armon said. “But he definitely helped me by
pushing me when I needed the energy.”
Though the team didn’t share in Ames and Armon’s
success, Venegas is still satisfied despite the blows it faced.
“The “˜ifs’ and “˜maybes’
don’t matter and I don’t play that game,” he
said. “Last year we finished fifth, this year we’re
fourth. We’re climbing and I’m happy with what we
had.”
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
Even though sophomore Yoo Kim didn’t take home the pole
vaulting title, his performance had its own special significance.
In a personal record of 18-2.5, Kim set a new Korean national
record, while fulfilling a promise he had made last summer to his
father.
“I told him I was going to break it this year,” Kim
said, “I called him right after I did it and he was so happy
for me. I’ve got great coaches, great opponents and great
teammates, how can I not go big?”