UCLA Men Win NCAA Track Title

UCLA track Coach Bob Larsen was eating a brownie in the interview area after his men’s team compiled 82 points to easily win the team title in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship meet Saturday at Hayward Field.

The Bruins’ 1,600-meter relay team had just won the last event with a flourish, becoming the first college team to break three minutes with a time of 2:59.91.

“That was just frosting on the cake,” Larsen said, referring to the relay team and pointing to his brownie. “We’re going to celebrate tonight.”

UCLA’s favored women’s team fell a few points short of celebrating, though, as Louisiana State won the team title with 61 points to the Bruins’ 58.

The difference, as it turned out, was Gail Devers’ third-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles. As the co-American record-holder at 12.61 seconds, she was heavily favored to win.

However, she nicked the eighth hurdle, crashed into the ninth, swayed off balance and barely stayed upright to finish.

Earlier, she had won her first individual title in an NCAA meet with a wind-aided, 10.86-second victory in the 100 meters.

After Devers’ hurdles mishap, the Bruins went into the 1,600 relay realizing that they had to win, while hoping that LSU would finish no better than fifth.

UCLA won as freshman Janeene Vickers came from behind on the anchor leg in the last 30 meters, sprinting past runners from LSU and Arizona State.

However, LSU was assured of the team title with its second-place finish.

“That win in the relay took away our disappointment,” said Bob Kersee, UCLA’s women’s coach. “We knew that LSU had a good relay team, and it didn’t help that Alabama scratched from the race, but we weren’t going into the race just to push the stick around.”

Nor was the men’s team just content to lope easily through the 1,600 relay, knowing they had clinched the championship hours earlier.

The Bruins led from start to finish with anchor man Henry Thomas opening up a 10-meter lead on the backstretch, then responding to a challenge from Florida’s Mark Everett in the final stretch.

UCLA broke its collegiate record of 3:00.55 set in last year’s NCAA meet. Asked how fast UCLA could run if its athletes didn’t go through four days of qualifying heats and finals, Bruin sprint coach John Smith paused and said, “I think we could run as well as the World Championship team, about 2:56.”

If so, the Bruins would threaten the world record of 2:56.16 established by a U.S. team at the high-altitude site of Mexico City in the 1968 Olympic Games.

Even though the UCLA relay team broke its own record, some of the athletes weren’t in the best of shape.

Thomas, who suffers from allergies, was wheezing and his eyes were watering after the race. Danny Everett, who ran the third leg, said his legs were numb because he had over-iced them Friday.

Moreover, Everett and Steve Lewis had already participated in the open 400 earlier in the afternoon. Everett, a junior, held off Lewis, a freshman, to win in a race that was a rerun of their competition in the Pacific 10 meet May 22.

Everett’s winning time was 44.52 seconds, with Lewis second at 44.83. That 1-2 finish set the tone for UCLA’s domination of the meet.

Larsen also got bonus points from his weightmen again as Dave Wilson finished second in the hammer throw with a lifetime best effort of 218 feet 5 inches, and then added a few more points by placing seventh in the shotput.

“We came into the meet thinking we could score in the 60s or low 70s, and we got more than we anticipated with a breakthrough by our throwers,” Larsen said. “They are hidden people because most of the attention has been paid to our sprinters. “

Last year, UCLA won the NCAA meet by a record margin of 53 points, 81 to runner-up Texas’ 28. The Bruins had a 41-point cushion Saturday as Texas had to be content with second place again.

“It just shows you that anything is possible with mediocre athletes and great coaching,” said Larsen, displaying his wry sense of humor.

Then, Larsen credited Smith and weight coach Art Venegas, for their ability to get peak performances out of the athletes in the most important meet of the season.

Later, Larsen was dunked in the steeplechase water jump pit by his athletes, observing the time-honored ritual.

It was UCLA’s eighth NCAA track title and 53rd overall in men’s competition.

Devers didn’t seem devastated by her mishap in the hurdles, a race won by Arizona State’s Lynda Tolbert in 12.82 seconds.

“I didn’t get out like I usually do, and I hit the hurdle big-time,” she said. “I made a mistake, but you learn from it.”

Even though Devers said her left leg hurt after she cracked into the hurdle, she still managed to run a leg on UCLA’s 1,600-meter relay team after a massage.

Devers failed to win the long jump Friday, prompting Kersee to say: “Gail is getting faster, and she must adjust her mechanics in both the hurdles and long jump. As her speed increases, her technique changes.”

Notes

USC’s Robert Reading had bad luck in the men’s 110-meter hurdles. Favored Arthur Blake of Florida State hit the first hurdle, bumped Reading and didn’t finish. Reading hit the second hurdle, almost stopped, but went on to finish in last place. . . . Sylvia Mosqueda, of Cal State Los Angeles, who won the 10,000 Wednesday night, exchanged the lead with Oregon’s Annette Hand in the 5,000 until the final nine laps. Hand then took charge and went on to win in the NCAA meet record time of 15:38.47. Mosqueda faded, finishing sixth. . . . Correction: Lorenzo Daniel’s time of 19.87 in the 200 Friday was the eighth-fastest performance of all time, not the sixth. He was also the fifth all-time performer in the event in setting a collegiate and NCAA meet record. . . . Kevin Young’s margin of victory, about 20 meters, in the 400 intermediate hurdles Friday was the largest in the history of the event at an NCAA meet.

USC, which was represented by only three men, finished in a tie for 31st with Stanford and Northwestern (La.) State, each with 9 points. . . . The Trojan women fared better, finishing seventh with 29 points. Houston’s Joe DeLoach, who failed to qualify for the 200 final, redeemed himself by winning the 100 in 10.03 to equal the NCAA meet record. UCLA’s Mike Marsh was fourth in 10.23. . . . California’s Sheila Hudson won the women’s triple jump in stirring competition with USC’s Wendy Brown and Yvette Bates, who finished second and third, respectively. Hudson’s winning mark was a wind-aided 45 feet 8 inches, best by an American under any conditions. Brown jumped 44-5 1/2 and Bates 44-2 3/4. . . . UCLA Coach Bob Kersee said it hasn’t been decided whether Gail Devers will run both the 100 and 100-meter hurdles at the Olympic trials July 15-23 in Indianapolis. Devers will be married to Ron Roberts, a former UCLA distance runner, June 25 in San Diego.