NCAA Track and Field Championships : UCLA Men Close In on Title With 45 Points

Last week, UCLA Coach Bob Larsen projected that his team probably would score in the 50-point range at the NCAA track and field meet--but he wasn’t sure it would be enough to win.

The Bruins will get their 50 points for sure. They already had 45 Friday night at Bernie Moore Stadium with more points expected today in the concluding session.

If there was any doubt that UCLA was rolling merrily along to the championship, it was dispelled in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Mark Junkermann, who finished fourth in the Pacific 10 meet in that event, charged home in second place, worth eight points, and provided the Bruins with a bonus.

And he wasn’t even bothered by the humid weather, which he called lovely. Junkermann was prepared, having worked out in a double sweat suit last week in Los Angeles.

The Southwest Conference schools were expected to challenge the Bruins, but they’ve been faltering. Texas was in second place with 24 points, while Texas A&M;, Texas Southern and Illinois had 18 points apiece.

So Larsen was asked if there was any way his team could be beaten?

“It’s mathematically possible, but at this point we’re obviously in the driver’s seat,” he said. “If we even have part of a good day tomorrow, that should do it.”

The Bruins started their roll when Jim Connolly won the decathlon Thursday night. It continued Friday as Kevin Young won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles; Henry Thomas finished third in a hot 200-meter race; Jim Banich got a fourth in the discus and then Thomas ran a blazing anchor leg to place his team third in the 400-meter relay.

And, of course, there was Junkermann, who came through with a personal best of 8:36.21 in the steeplechase.

“I got knocked around a lot in the Pac-10 meet, so I decided to stay out of trouble tonight,” he said. “I was fourth or fifth for the first two laps before I moved up with the leaders.”

Junkermann had the lead until the backstretch of the final lap, when he was passed by Oregon’s Dan Nelson and Washington’s Dan Bell.

But he caught Bell, the Pac-10 champion, in the final 110 meters of the race.

The weather was relatively kind to the athletes after a stormy evening Thursday replete with thunder and lightning.

Texas A&M;’s Floyd Heard supplied most of the lightning Friday. He defended his 200-meter title in impressive fashion, winning in the wind-aided time of 20.03 seconds.

North Carolina State’s Danny Peebles was second in 20.16, and the fast-closing Thomas was third in 20.22.

Heard was the world’s top ranked 200-meter sprinter last year after winning in the NCAA and TAC meets and the Goodwill Games in Moscow.

“Winning two NCAA championships probably means more to me than a gold medal, because not as many people can beat you in the Olympics,” Heard said.

Asked if he’s ready to beat Carl Lewis, who recently served notice that he’s back in sprint form with a 19.92 win in Madrid, Heard said: “If the Lord keeps me healthy, I don’t think anybody in the world can beat me.”

UCLA will be gunning for its seventh NCAA title today. Only one school has won more: USC, with 26.

But the Trojans brought just a token team to Louisiana and scored only 3 1/2 points Friday, with the prospect of, perhaps, a few more from Pancho Morales today in the 100.

USC’s women’s team is making a respectable showing. The Trojans are in third place with 22 points behind LSU (41) and Alabama (32). It doesn’t seem likely they’ll catch the leaders.

Leslie Maxie made her contribution, though. She finished second in the 400-meter hurdles in 55.79, behind Nebraska’s Linetta Wilson (55.55).

It was Maxie’s best time since she set a world junior record of 55.20 in 1984. Maxie leaned at the finish line to beat Texas’ Mimi King, but she didn’t see Wilson in an outside lane.

“I don’t know where she came from,” Maxie said, “but technically I ran a pretty good race, just not a great one.”

Her men’s counterpart, UCLA’s Kevin Young, was in charge of his race all the way. He won by about two meters in a season-best time of 48.90.

“My pre-race plan was to take 12 steps thrugh the first three hurdles, then go to 13 the rest of the way,” Young said. “But I was so relaxed that I took 13 all the way. Then, I came hard on the backstretch and maintained it all the way.”

Young was asked if he was surprised that Edwin Moses’ winning streak of 107 races was finally snapped by Danny Harris in Madrid.

“Eventually it was going to happen, but I didn’t think that Danny Harris would get him so early in the year,” Young said.

He was cautious about saying that the Bruins had practically cinched the team championship.

“I know one thing. If we’re ahead after tomorrow, everyone is going into the steeplechase water jump pit,” Young said.

NCAA Notes

UCLA’s women’s team had only 7 points. Gail Devers, who led the Bruins to the Pac-10 title, is being limited to only three events here, 100 meters and both relays. UCLA Coach Bob Kersee didn’t want to overwork his star athlete with the TAC and World Championship meets ahead. . . . Bob Larsen, the men’s coach, anticipates points today from Danny Everett in the 400, Steve Kerho in the high hurdles, Jim Banich in the shotput, Mike Marsh in the 100 and a high place for the 1,600-meter relay team. . . . “We’re ahead of my conservative estimate of how we’d do,” he said. “We’ve had a remarkable three days here and this team hasn’t been pushed in dual meets, or the conference meet.”

USC’s Yvette Bates had a personal best of 21-2 1/2 while finishing third in the long jump. Sheila Echols of LSU won with a jump of 22-9 1/2, best in the world this year. . . . UCLA’s men set a school record of 39.11 with a third place finish in the sprint relay. . . . USC’s Wendy Brown didn’t qualify for the final round of the long jump and was only in sixth place after the first day of heptathlon competition. . . . USC Coach Fred LaPlante on his his women’s team: “We’re not scoring as much as we thought we would, but we’re doing better than other people thought.” . . . Other winners Friday: Texas’ Dag Wennlund in the javelin at 252-10; Seton Hall’s Tracy Baskin in the 800 at 1:46.58; Fresno State’s Doug Fraley in the pole vault at 18-5 1/2; Georgia’s Gwen Torrence in the 200 with a wind-aided time of 22.37 and Rice’s Regina Cavanaugh with a meet record throw of 56-10 3/4 in the shotput.