Pacific 10 Track and Field Meet : Devers Hurdles Past Joyner-Kersee Again

After Jackie Joyner-Kersee broke Gail Devers’ American record in the 100-meter hurdles May 7 at Modesto, her husband, Bob, told her, in essence, that she wouldn’t be able to savor her accomplishment for any extended period of time.

Bob Kersee was prophetic.

Devers, virtually a one-woman track team for UCLA, regained the record in impressive fashion Saturday in a qualifying heat during the Pacific 10 Conference track and field meet at Drake Stadium.

Devers, running with a bulky pad on her left knee, recorded a time of 12.61 seconds to break Joyner-Kersee’s record of 12.70.

“I told Jackie that she better be ready to run 12.59,” said Kersee, the UCLA women’s track coach.

Joyner-Kersee will get her opportunity to reclaim the record next Saturday in the Bruce Jenner Invitational at San Jose.

The shaving of the record began April 2 at Fresno, where Devers was timed in 12.71 seconds. Now the question is, how many times will the record be lowered again in future weeks, or months?

“Our goal (referring to Jackie) is to go as fast as we can,” Devers said. “If we keep exchanging the record, that’s OK as long as we keep it in the family.”

Devers has her collegiate responsibilities, while Joyner-Kersee, the world record-holder in the heptathlon, has her own agenda. So the hurdlers aren’t scheduled to compete against each other in a meet at any definite date in the future.

They practice together, though, at UCLA, working on starts over the first three hurdles.

Not only did the 5-foot 3-inch, 113-pound Devers break the American record, she was almost a full second ahead of the second-place finisher, USC’s Yvette Bates, who was timed in 13.55.

Devers, who won four events in last year’s Pac-10 meet while running anchor on two winning relay teams, isn’t satisfied unless she’s competing.

She was active again Saturday on a warm day, winning the long jump at 22 feet 1 3/4 inches and winning her qualifying heat in the 100 in 10.97 seconds, a personal record, even though it was wind aided, 2.10 meters per second, barely over the allowable of 2 m.p.s.

“I really didn’t know that I set an American record. I was just concentrating on my mechanics,” said Devers, a UCLA senior. “I just wanted to stay relaxed, and the first three hurdles set up the race for me.”

Devers said that she doesn’t have any specific time in mind when she runs. As for lowering the record again, she said: “I would like to go faster, but I can’t say that I can.”

Devers said she wore a protective pad on her left knee that contains fluid to protect her trail leg from hitting a hurdle. She also wore an old shoe and a new one because she’s missing a toenail on one foot.

Devers won’t run the 200 in the Pac-10 meet and could be held out of the relays if favored UCLA is in control of the meet. She plans to run the 100-meter hurdles, 100 and long jump in the NCAA meet June 1-4 in Eugene, Ore.

As for the Olympic trials July 15-23 in Indianapolis, Devers’ said she hasn’t decided whether she’ll try to qualify for the team in both the 100 and hurdles, but the long jump is out.

UCLA’s men’s team is also heavily favored to repeat as team champion and that was underscored early in the afternoon when Oregon’s pole vaulters, Jay Davis and Jim Mours, failed to make an opening height of 16 feet, 4 3/4 inches.

The Ducks had only an outside chance of beating the Bruins before the vaulters floundered.

The surprise winner was USC’s Lance Betson, with a personal best of 16-8 3/4. Betson didn’t have a qualifying mark for the event, but schools are allowed one entry per event regardless.

Betson, a senior, improved on his previous best performance by six inches.

“We knew the Oregon vaulters were the ones to beat, but this is the Pac-10 meet and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done before,” Betson said.

Betson is a walk-on at USC, where a grant-in-aid costs approximately $17,000. The vaulter from Newport Beach said his father took out a trust fund for him so that he’d be able to enroll at USC. He had previously competed at Long Beach City College.

Even though he was a decided underdog, Betson said he came into the meet with the notion that he could jump as high as anyone else. Betson said he and the rest of the Trojans got an inspirational pre-meet talk from assistant coach George Mehale, who is leaving the school after the current season.

Betson’s winning height was the lowest since UCLA’s Jon Vaughn won the Pac-10 meet at 16-6 in 1970.

Other highlights on the opening day of the two-day meet:

--UCLA’s quarter-milers, Danny Everett and Steve Lewis, were timed in 44.94 and 44.96, respectively, in qualifying heats. It was a personal best time for Lewis.

--Another Bruin, Kevin Young, recorded the fastest time in the world this year, 48.73, in a 400-meter hurdles heat.

“I was surprised with the time, especially since I was running out of Lane 9,” Young said. “I think my coach, John Smith, did that on purpose to get me used to running on different parts of the track.”

Oregon State’s Karl Van Calcar won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 8:30.13 and had the dubious distinction of being the last Beaver to win an individual championship. The school is dropping the track program after this season.

Track and Field Notes

Oregon led in the men’s division after eight events with 46 points, while UCLA was fifth with 23. However, the Bruins are expected to score heavily today in the 100, 200, 400, 400-meter hurdles and both relays. USC was tied for seventh with Arizona State at 17 points. In the women’s division, Oregon led with 47 points, while runner-up UCLA had 42. USC women are in fifth place with 24 points. . . . Al Franken, the meet director of the Pepsi Invitational June 5, was informed Friday by The Athletics Congress officials that there would be drug testing at the meet. Franken said he informed the entrants in the weight events and they told him they elected not to compete. So scratch the shotput and discus from that meet.

Although Gail Devers and Jackie Joyner-Kersee are assaulting the American record in the 100-meter hurdles, the world record of 12.25 held by Bulgaria’s Ginka Zagorcheva is obviously not in jeopardy. . . . Karl Van Calcar, the winner of the steeplechase, said there is a possibility that the Oregon State track program will be restored if a state tax on beer and cigarettes is approved by the state’s legislature. The tax would benefit athletic programs of schools in the state.