Thursday, April 4, 1996
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
Firmly established as one of the premier programs in the NCAA,
the UCLA women’s track and field team has once again been picked by
Track and Field News to finish in the top three at this year’s NCAA
Outdoor Championships.
The Bruins, who will encounter their toughest competition so far
this year when they take the track today through Saturday for the
Texas Relays, were actually picked to repeat as runners up, with
perennial power Louisiana State as the predicted winner.
And when you consider head coach Jeanette Bolden’s losses from a
year ago  Dawn Dumble, Karen Hecox and Shelia Burrell, among
others  it appears that the authoritative track and field
publication has given the Bruins the benefit of the doubt in its
preseason assessment.
Dumble, after all, was the discus champ and the runner-up in the
shot put last year, and with 81 career points in NCAA competition,
is the all-time leading point scorer among women and men. Hecox won
the 3,000-meters in 1994, when UCLA finished the team competition
in third place, and then was third in that event last season, while
Burrell earned All-American honors with a fourth-place finish in
the heptathalon last year.
All said, the Bruins are without those athletes that accounted
for more than half of their 58 total points in 1995.
But Bolden has also picked up some marquee athletes in the area
where her team has been lacking most in recent years  the
sprinting events.
Though UCLA has always been dominant in the field events, thanks
mostly to assistant coach Art Venegas’ corps of throwers, the
Bruins have received relatively little point production on the
track. In fact, last year, only 11 points were scored by
runners.
This year, however, Bolden boasts a slew of potential NCAA
qualifiers in the sprints and hurdles.
Leading the way will be freshman Joanna Hayes, the Track and
Field News prep Female Athlete of the Year in 1995. Hayes
specializes in the 100-meter hurdles, where as a high schooler, she
achieved a wind-aided personal best of 13.38. That time, among
UCLA’s all-time bests, would rank fourth  two spots ahead of
Bisa Grant, who is returning for her sophomore season.
Andrea Anderson, another prep All-American wooed to Westwood by
Bolden, has recorded the team’s fastest time in the 100-meters
(11.50) and will also compete in the 200 and the 400.
Still nursing a tender leg is senior Camille Noel, who underwent
hip surgery in the off-season and is now approaching the form that
landed her an automatic NCAA qualification in the 400 as a
freshman.
Noel’s injury, unfortunately, is not the only one that has
Bolden concerned. Redshirt junior Erin Blunt, an automatic
qualifier in the 400 hurdles as a freshman (57.68), has undergone
two surgeries in three years  one on her knee and another on
her foot  and still is not fully recovered, while sophomore
quarter-miler Cicely Scott is suffering from a foot ailment.
If all goes well, Blunt, Noel and Scott will return to
competition next weekend when UCLA hosts a quadrangular meet with
Houston, Cal-State Northridge and UC Irvine.
And with the full crew, which also includes Darlene Malco and
Charlene Baldwin, Bolden will have one of the strongest relay
combinations in the Pacific 10, if not the nation.
On the field, the Bruins should continue their domination,
though the loss of Dumble will take away some of the team’s
depth.
Senior Valeyta Althouse, who won the shot put title last year
with a 59-foot, 11 3/4-inch heave, is a practical shoo-in to defend
her title this season. She is the current owner of both the indoor
and outdoor American collegiate records, and she won the NCAA
Indoor Championship in March with relative ease.
Sophomore Suzy Powell, the fifth-place finisher in last year’s
discus competition, is the obvious favorite to win that event this
season. Powell, who set the American junior record as a freshman
with a throw of 190-6, improved her personal best last week to an
NCAA-leading 196-5.
Her closest competitor in that event is teammate Nada Kawar, a
sophomore who threw a lifetime-best 183-11 last week and, if she
continues her improvement in the shot put, gives UCLA the best
one-two punch in the nation in both events.
Junior Amy Acuff, who became only the second American woman ever
to win the NCAA indoor title, outdoor title and the USA Track and
Field title in the same year when she did it as a sophomore, is
 not surprisingly  the top-rated collegiate jumper this
year.
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Freshman Joanna Hayes’ wind-aided 13.38 seconds in high school
would be the fourth-fastest 100-meter hurdles time in UCLA school
history.
Senior Valeyta Althouse … is the current owner of both the
indoor and outdoor American collegiate records, and she won the
NCAA Indoor Championship in March with relative ease.