Wednesday, April 10, 1996
Former Bruins leave stellar legacy for NCAA hopefulsBy Scott
Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
There has been a luxury enjoyed by the UCLA women’s track and
field team over the past few years, one that is shared by few other
schools in the nation, and one that has more or less propelled the
program to its current position of national prominence.
The Bruins, currently ranked second by Track and Field News,
have boasted a number of athletes so dominant at the collegiate
level that, heading into the NCAA championship competition, you
just assumed that they would score points.
Among the throwers, there was the now-graduated Dawn Dumble,
who, with four NCAA individual titles and 81 points in NCAA
competition, is the all-time leading NCAA point scorer among women
and men.
In the high jump, there has been  and still is Â
junior Amy Acuff, the two-time indoor and defending NCAA outdoor
champion. At the very least, Acuff, who finished third at this
year’s indoor championships, must be considered a top contender for
this year’s outdoor title.
And in the distance events, there has been the now-graduated
Karen Hecox, who won the 3,000-meters title two years ago and
placed third in that event last season.
But while Dumble’s shoes have been filled nicely in the throwing
events by Valeyta Althouse and Suzy Powell  favorites in the
shot put and discus, respectively  there is no replacement
for Hecox.
"We’ve enjoyed a high level of success at the national level
with Karen," UCLA distance coach Eric Peterson said. "But we didn’t
have people under her pushing those national standards and,
realistically, looking like they were just going to step in and
automatically score.
"It didn’t look that way, and the way it’s playing out right
now, that’s a true statement."
The burden of scoring NCAA points in the distance events has
fallen on the collective shoulders of a young, inexperienced, and
now, injury-depleted squad, leaving a giant question mark
surrounding the Bruins’s chances at a first national team title
since the glory years of the early ’80s, when Jackie Joyner,
Florence Griffith and current head coach Jeanette Bolden graced the
track.
The Bruins’ best hopes at point production by a distance runner
seem to lie, according to Peterson, with true freshman Bethany
Lucas. Lucas, whose forté is the 800 meters, is a two-time
Oregon state high school champion in that event and was ranked in
the top five in the nation as a senior.
She has finished the race in under 2:10 five times in her
career, with a lifetime best of 2:09.14, though she has yet to
accomplish the feat this season (her best mark of the year is a
2:14.76 set at the UCSD Invitational March 30), and the provisional
qualification standard for the NCAA meet is 2:09.
"Bethany Lucas is probably the most likely athlete to qualify,"
Peterson said. "She’s getting better all the time, and we’re
patiently watching her progress this spring because as soon as she
breaks through, she has a history of the bottom dropping out of
those times and all of a sudden, running very fast."
Sophomore Zalika Davis, also an 800 specialist, complements
Lucas well, giving the Bruins one of the stronger one-two punches
in the 800 in the Pacific 10 Conference.
UCLA’s other realistic NCAA hopeful is senior 10,000-meter
runner Jeanene Harlick, a third-place finisher in that event at
last year’s Pac-10 championships.
Harlick ran the 10,000 in 35:51.84 at last week’s Texas Relays,
a mark that is 11 seconds shy of the NCAA provisional standard, but
a 31 second improvement on her previous best.
"We’re young and we’re inexperienced, and the experience that
we’re gaining this year is valuable," Peterson said. "But is it
going to be enough to get them to the national meet and have them
actually contribute as a scoring athlete?
"I don’t know  we might get one or two athletes to do
that, and if I had to pick, it would be Jeanene Harlick and one of
the two half-milers."
Junior Katherina Kechris has been a solid performer in the 1,500
and 3,000, but she is by no means a national contender, and beyond
her, Peterson’s roster thins dramatically.
Stress-fractured femurs have sidelined freshmen Molly Mehlberg
and Tracy Clark, two of UCLA’s brightest prospects in the 1,500 and
3,000, and the early retirement of transfer student Shelley Taylor
left a huge void in the 5,000.
Taylor, who was an All-American cross country runner while at
Arkansas, decided to give up running after completing her junior
season at UCLA last spring.
"We’ve had some bad luck in this area, with Tracy and Molly’s
injuries and with Shelley gone," Peterson said. "We’re thin, but
Kechris, Harlick and Davis and Lucas are great athletes, and
Jeanene has an excellent chance at qualifying for nationals."
* * *
Sophomore discus thrower Suzy Powell, who won the discus
competition at the Texas Relays with a meet-record throw of 191
feet 6 inches, was named the Pac-10 Women’s Field Athlete of the
Week Monday.
"We’re young and we’re inexperienced, and the experience that
we’re gaining this year is valuable."
Eric Peterson
UCLA Distance Coach