Men’s track wins all 18 events in last home meet
Cal Poly San Luis
Obispo, CSUN no
match for m. track
By Tim Costner
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
You would think that UCLA was the only team out there.
The Bruins dominated their last home meet of the season on
Saturday, as the men’s track and field team won 18 out of 18 events
at Drake Stadium. UCLA topped Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 127-24, and
Cal State Northridge, 132-22, in dual scoring.
UCLA senior John Godina had the highlight of the meet, throwing
206 feet, three inches in the discus for his all-time best mark at
Drake Stadium.
"It was good that I could pull something out," Godina said. "My
legs were terrible — maybe it was the lifting that I’ve been
doing. I was also messing with my arm strength too much. But it was
nice."
Godina didn’t compete in the shotput because he needed to rest
his wrist for the Mt. SAC relays next weekend, where he will
compete against a field of Olympians.
"It feels almost normal," Godina said of his wrist. "I could
have thrown today but it would have been dumb. There’s no reason to
hurt yourself when you got guys who can cover it for you."
And Bruin throwers Mark Parlin and Jonathan Ogden covered the
shotput quite adequately, finishing first and second with
respective marks of 59-10 1/2 and 58-4.
In other throwing events, Greg Johnson finished first in the
javelin (222-0), while Greg Hodel won the hammer (205-4).
"I really thought Ogden and Parlin would do better in the shot,"
UCLA throwing coach Art Venegas said. "They really need to get
their attitude adjusted towards the competition. I need to get a
little rougher on them starting today. Overall, I think the
undercurrent of the meet is that I expected more today."
In the sprints, newcomers Ato Bolden and Ibrahim Hassan opened
in the individual events, with Bolden winning the 100-meters
(10.37) and 200m (20.95) and Hassan winning the 400m (47.0). Both
ran legs on the 4x100m relay (40.01). UCLA sprinting coach John
Smith was pleased with their early season marks.
"We worked really hard this week and I didn’t taper them," Smith
said. "I thought Hassan and Bolden showed that they could work
hard. They’re really starting to get their rhythm together. By the
time we get to the ‘SC meet (on May 6), they’ll be ready to
roll."
UCLA’s Avery Anderson won the 110m hurdles (14.12), the 400m
hurdles (52.68) and ran a leg on the 4x400m relay team
(3:12.52).
Rounding out the list of UCLA winners, Scott Slover won the pole
vault (17-6 1/2), Rich Pitchford won the high jump (7-0), Thomas
Ganda won the long jump (23-10 3/4), Mike Terry won the 800m
(1:51.5), Devin Elizondo won the 1500m (3:56.57), Dan Niednagel won
the 3000m (8:19.58) and Andru Clark won the triple jump (46-8).