Hecox earns qualification in 5K; Althouse honored by
Pacific-10
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With the NCAA Championships fast approaching, the UCLA women’s
track and field team moved one step closer last weekend to
realizing its dream of a national title.
The Bruins, picked by Track and Field News to end Louisiana
State’s eight-year reign atop the NCAA this season, earned another
automatic qualification to nationals when senior Karen Hecox
finished the 5,000-meter race in 16:03.90 at the Penn Relays in
Philadelphia.
Hecox, who competes for UCLA’s cross country team in the fall,
had run that distance on the track only two times before, and her
time was a personal-record by more than 21 seconds, though it only
earned her a third-place finish.
"When you run at that level, and you’re already established as
one of the top young distance runners in the United States, to have
a big P.R. late in the season like that  I hope would be a
real confidence booster for her," UCLA distance coach Eric Peterson
said. "She ran under control, and I know she’s a little bit
disappointed with finishing third, but she can’t be disappointed
with that time."
Hecox was also entered in the 1,500, but fell ill after the
5,000 and had to withdraw from the shorter race.
* * *
The Bruins’ other automatic qualifiers are Dawn Dumble in the
shot put and discus, Valeyta Althouse in the shot put, Suzy Powell
in the discus and Amy Acuff in the high jump.
* * *
Althouse, who broke her own Pacific-10 Conference record in the
shot put with a 59-foot, 11-inch whopper at the Penn Relays, was
named the Pac-10 Field Athlete of the Week Monday. It was the
second time that she was given the honor this season, and the
fourth time out of four that it has gone to a UCLA athlete.
Acuff was honored for the week of April 17, when she set the
school record in the high jump at the Mt. San Antonio College
Relays with a leap of 6-3 1/2. The two-time NCAA indoor champion
was honored again for the week of April 24, when she equaled her
school record at the Meet of Champions at Azusa Pacific
University.
* * *
At the Cal-Nevada Collegiate Championships Sunday in Fresno,
Acuff improved her school record to 6-4, equaling the outdoor
personal best she set the summer before her freshman year at
UCLA.
She then moved the bar to 6-6, a half-inch higher than the
height with which she won this year’s NCAA indoor championship, but
missed on all three attempts.
"She had some very good attempts at 6-6," UCLA head coach
Jeanette Bolden said. "She hit the bar with her calves, but her
second and third attempts were very good."
* * *
Bolden will likely open redshirt sophomore Erin Blunt in the
400-meter hurdles this weekend in the triangular meet with Brigham
Young and Southern Cal at USC.
Blunt, the Pac-10 champion in the 400 hurdles in her freshman
season, sat out all last year with bad knees and shin splints, then
suffered a foot injury before this season and ran competitively for
the first time at the Cal-Nevada Championships as a member of
UCLA’s winning 1,600 relay.