Friday, 4/25/97 Bruins look to dominate Cal-Nevada Championship
Runners will be competing at shorter distances than usual
By Emmanuelle Ejercito Daily Bruin Staff The UCLA men’s track
and field team has won three of the four California-Nevada
Championships, and this weekend in Northridge, the Bruins are
looking to make it four of five. The only time UCLA did not win the
meet was in 1995, when it sent only 12 athletes to the event. When
the Bruins are out in full force, though, they become a dominating
power in the meet. At last year’s state championships, UCLA easily
took the title by scoring 185 – far outdistancing the 114 points of
second-place Fresno State. This year shouldn’t be any easier for
Bruin opponents. However, while most of the athletes will be
participating, some of the Bruins won’t be competing in their best
events. Many of the Bruins will be running shorter distances than
they’re used to. For example, junior Mebrahtom Keflezighi, who is
the national leader and school record-holder in both the 5,000
meters and the 10,000, will take a break from those events and
compete in the 1,500. Moving from the 1,500 to 800 is Mark Hauser,
and shifting from the 800 to the 400 is Jess Strutzel. Last week at
Mt. SAC, Strutzel set a personal best of 1:49.80 in the 800. "We’re
not necessarily putting each person in their event that they would
score maximum points in," UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said, "But I
think that we will have a good chance of winning even without
trying to maximize our points right now." Some athletes will be
competing in their best events though. After running on the relays
and in the 200 and 400 to work on speed in the past couple of
meets, true freshman Michael Granville will again return to his
specialty of the 800. Most of the throwers will compete in their
usual events, with the exception of sophomore Luke Sullivan, who
will not participate at all due to a back injury. While the
throwers had a big meet last weekend at Mt. SAC, most notably Wade
Tift, who set a personal best and NCAA automatic qualifying mark of
61-11 1/2, UCLA throwing coach Art Venegas isn’t expecting the same
big results this weekend. "We’re working through this meet because
even though this is a state meet we have bigger meets coming up,"
Venegas said. "We’re just working through it hoping for the best,
that they’ll all focus well while they are working through it."