Wednesday, 5/28/97 Quest for team title runs out of steam in
Seattle USC takes Pac-10 prize, destroys UCLA’s winning streak
By Emmanuelle Ejercito Daily Bruin Staff All good things must
come to an end. The UCLA men’s track and field team saw its streak
of five conference titles snapped last weekend in Seattle at the
Pac-10 Championships. It was a tight race for the crown between the
Bruins and USC. The Trojans barely edged out UCLA, scoring a total
of 145 points to the Bruins’ 138. The crosstown rivals were
followed by Washington (96), Oregon (93), Arizona (91.5),
Washington State (90), Stanford (86) and California (74.5). The
Pac-10 Championship came down to the last event – the 1,600-meter
relay. In order for UCLA to come home with the title, it would have
had to finish first, and USC would have had to finish third.
However, the Trojans have had the fastest relay time in the
conference all season. In a close race, USC crossed the line first
at 3:04.92 to clinch the title while the Bruins finished just a
breath behind at 3:05.44. "USC had a good meet and we left the door
open by not being able to get over humps in some events," UCLA head
coach Bob Larsen said. "We did well, but missed that little extra."
Despite the fact that UCLA did not win the team title, it did not
leave the meet empty-handed. The Bruins garnered three individual
Pac-10 titles. Winning his first conference title in the javelin
throw was junior Josh Johnson. Johnson, who placed last year at the
meet despite suffering from an elbow injury all season, threw a
lifetime best of 230 feet, 1 inch to earn 10 points for UCLA on
Saturday. His throw was almost 9 feet longer than that of the
second-place finisher, Henrik Kjaereng of USC. Brian Fell, who has
had a breakthrough year this season, also won his first Pac-10
individual crown with a lifetime best. Fell entered the meet
leading the conference in the intermediate hurdles with a
season-best time of 50.78. However, on Sunday, Fell bettered his
time to 50.33. Winning the conference crown in the 5,000 may be
becoming old hat for junior Mebrahtom Keflezighi. Keflezighi, who
won the 5,000 Pac-10 title, repeated his feat with his
third-fastest time ever at 13:47.95. Earlier on Sunday, Keflezighi
finished sixth in the 1,500 with a time of 3:44.82 after battling
it out with eventual winner Bernard Lagat of WSU. In the 5,000,
Keflezighi also faced his biggest challenger in Lagat, but this
time pulled away with a victory. "After finishing sixth in the
1,500, to come back with a great 5,000," Larsen said, "it’s pretty
dramatic to do that." Perhaps the two biggest reasons for the
Bruins barely missing their sixth straight conference championship
was a miscalculation and an injury. True freshman Michael
Granville, owner of the second-fastest time in the conference in
the 800 and one of the national leaders in the event, did not
qualify for the finals of the 800. The top two finishers in each
heat and the six fastest times qualify for the finals. Granville
finished third in the first heat which was a much slower-paced heat
than the second. Granville was edged out of qualifying for the
finals by four one-hundredths of a second as all of the time
qualifiers came from the second heat. "We needed (eight) more
points to win and Michael is capable of scoring," Larsen said.
"Sometimes you’re in a race where things don’t go exactly as
planned. We tried to save his energy for the next day and the
1,600-meter relay, but we ended up being too conservative." Another
possible source of those eight needed points was Randy Brookes.
However, Brookes, who was ranked second in the conference in the
100, had to pull out of the qualifying heat because of soreness in
his hamstring. Brookes injured his hamstring at the Modesto
Invitational two weeks ago. "He did not injure it further, but he
did, I think, the right thing by trying not to push through it,"
Larsen said. GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin Josh Johnson had a
lifetime best in the meet.