Maxie Comes to Rescue of USC Women : Her Anchor Leg in 1,600-Meter Relay Turns Back UCLA, 69-67

It’s a good thing the well-wishers were waiting for her just beyond the finish line, because Leslie Maxie didn’t plan to be on her feet much longer.

“I felt good in one respect,” the USC freshman said, “but, in another, I was dying. I was really hurting.”

While the aching body might have said otherwise, Maxie was, indeed, feeling very good. It would have been awfully hard not to be, since it was her anchor leg in the 1,600 relay, the final event of the day, that lifted the USC women’s track team over UCLA, 69-67, Saturday at the Coliseum.

Funny thing, she wasn’t even supposed to be in the position to win it for USC. Only 10 minutes before the start of the race, Maxie, who had already won the 400-meter hurdles in a school-record 56.72 and run the opening leg in the victorious 400 relay earlier in the day, was set to run third in the 1,600, with Gervaise McCraw anchoring. But McCraw, bothered by a hamstring injury, told Coach Fred LaPlante that she would prefer a change in the order.

So it came down to Maxie, a freshman from San Mateo who was running at only 70% strength herself because of a pulled muscle on the inside of the right leg. USC, which trailed going into the final event, 67-64, took control in the first lap as LaWanda Cabell grabbed an eight-yard lead. She handed to McCraw, who held off UCLA freshman Choo Choo Knighten to keep the lead. Myra Mayberry’s third leg gave Maxie and the Trojans a cushion of about one yard over UCLA’s do-it-all sophomore, Gail Devers.

Devers, competing in her seventh event of the day, four of which produced wins, stayed on Maxie’s shoulder for most of the way before Maxie pulled away down the stretch to give USC the win in 3:32.58. Maxie was timed unofficially in 52.9. UCLA was timed in 3:33.48.

“I’ve never run so hard for something like this,” said Maxie, named the 1984 girls high school Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News. “That was incredible pressure.”

Said LaPlante, the third-year coach who was rewarded for his first win over UCLA with a dunk in the steeplechase water jump: “I’m amazed at her run. She’s not fit. She hasn’t trained much at all because of that groin problem. She is not ready to run like this. But it all comes down to the fact that she is a champion.”

Wendy Brown’s success in the jumping events was also a factor for USC. She won the high jump at 5-7, won the triple jump at 43-4 and finished second in the long jump at 20-10 3/4.

Devers’ wins came in the long jump (21-6 3/4), 100-meter hurdles (13.30), 100-meter dash (11.41) and 200 (23.38). UCLA also had an individual standout in the distance races as Polly Plumer took the 3,000 (9:29.68) and 1,500 (4:24.62).