NCAA Track and Field Championships : Young Blazes in 400 Hurdles; UCLA Has Lead

UCLA’s Kevin Young had a notion that he had won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles by a comfortable margin when he heard that he had recorded a time of 47.85 seconds Friday in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. track and field championships.

Young wasn’t looking over his shoulder at the finish, or he would have realized that he was an astounding 2.2 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Iowa’s Pat McGhee, or a distance of about 20 meters.

While Young was putting distance between himself and the other hurdlers, the UCLA men were following suit in the team race.

The Bruins were well on their way to defending their championship with 38 points, including some unexpected help from discus throwers Peter Thompson and Brian Blutreich. Texas was second with 30 points.

UCLA’s women were in a tighter battle for the team championship as Gail Devers didn’t win the long jump as expected, although she ran a remarkable anchor leg in the 400-meter relay to provide the Bruins with a second-place finish.

Louisiana State had 35 points to UCLA’s 32. After Thompson and Blutreich finished second and third in the discus, that result was relayed to Young by his coach, Bob Larsen.

So Young took it from there, getting out fast while ever widening his lead over his opposition. His time established an NCAA meet record, and only five other intermediate hurdlers have ever run faster. Moreover, Young, a senior, broke Andre Phillips’ school record of 48.10 set in 1981.

“I was hyped up for the race,” said Young, whose previous best was 48.15 in 1987. “I got through the first 200 at a fast pace, and I knew the others would have to come out and get me.”

No one answered that challenge, as McGhee lagged behind in second place at 50.07 seconds.

Young wasn’t the only athlete to excel on a mild day when rain didn’t visit the Willamette Valley as anticipated.

Mississippi State’s Lorenzo Daniel took charge of the 200-meter race on the turn, came out with at least a one-meter lead and went on to win in 19.87 seconds, the sixth fastest performance of all time.

California’s Atlee Mahorn and UCLA’s Henry Thomas chased Daniel to the finish line with times of 20.20 and 20.25, respectively.

“I just wanted to run the turn nice and easy,” said Thomas, who was third in the 200 in the 1987 NCAA meet. “I’m not as sharp as I could be as I missed a month of training.”

Thomas is bothered by allergies, such as pollen, dust, grass, cats, to name a few.

After the 200, Thomas carried the Bruins to second place in the 400-meter relay after a faulty exchange between leadoff sprinter Henry Marsh and Danny Everett.

Marsh was fourth when got the baton and passed every team except Texas A&M;, which won in the time of 38.84 seconds.

Devers had even a greater deficit to make up as the Bruins were in fifth place when she got the baton. Like the men, UCLA had a sloppy first exchange, this one between Tonya Sedwick and Caryl Smith. Arizona State, the Pacific 10 champion, won in 43.64 with UCLA at 43.74.

Devers has yet to win an NCAA title in her UCLA career. She was favored in the long jump but fouled twice and settled for second with a jump of 21 feet 6 inches. Nena Gage of George Mason was the winner at 21-8 3/4.

Devers’ best events, the 100 and 100-meter hurdles, are scheduled today.

“It has been three years and three days since her first NCAA competition and she has yet to win a title,” said Bob Kersee, UCLA’s women’s coach. “I guarantee that will end tomorrow.”

Larsen was more than satisfied with UCLA’s position, realizing that he has a bundle points coming today from quarter-milers Everett and Steve Lewis and the 1,600-meter relay team.

“We feel very good. We’re hitting in every event and we are where we want to be,” Larsen said. “We’re ahead of schedule because of the discus. It’s important to get momentum going on the first day of the finals because there’s pressure on a defending champion team.”

Track Notes

USC’s George Porter finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 50.37 seconds. He had to charge after hitting the first two hurdles. . . . Said Kevin Young: “I was a 51.09 hurdler as a freshman. It has been a tremendous drop.”. . . . USC’s Ibrahim Okash finished sixth in the 800 meters as USC had a modest total of 7 points in the men’s division. . . . USC’s Wendy Brown wound up sixth in the long jump. The Trojan women are in seventh place with 13 points. . . . UCLA’s Janeene Vickers had a personal best of 56.10 while finishing fourth in the 400-meter hurdles. . . . UCLA’s Tracie Millett and Kris Larson finished third and fourth, respectively, in the discus.

Other winners included Villanova’s Vicki Huber in the 3,000, in the collegiate and meet record time of 8:47.35; Oregon State’s Karl Van Calcar in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 8:32.35, and Texas’ Eric Metcalf in the long jump at 27-2. . . . UCLA’s Peter Thompson finished second in the discus with a throw of 189 feet, and teammate Brian Blutreich got third place on his last throw at 188-6. . . . “Some people figured us for only three points, and we got 14 out of the discus,” Blutreich said. “We were glad to help out our sprinters. They’re world-class people. We aren’t.”