NCAA Track and Field Meet : USC’s Reading Breaks 22-Year-Old School Record

School track records, especially at USC and UCLA, don’t usually stand the test of time.

So it’s rather surprising that Earl McCullouch’s USC record of 13.43 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles had endured since 1967--until Thursday night.

Robert Reading broke that 22-year-old record with a time of 13.42 seconds while winning his heat race in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. track and field meet at Brigham Young University.

Before Reading, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound senior from Berkeley, learned of his official time, he said: “Hopefully, I can accomplish two things, a school record and winning an NCAA championship.”

One goal has been achieved even though it wasn’t a classic race for Reading.

“I got a good start, but I was tired by the eighth hurdle and, after knocking down the 10th hurdle, I didn’t think I could make it,” he said. “I was really exhausted.”

Although Reading was running at a high-altitude site, 4,500 feet, he said the thin air didn’t contribute to his fatigue.

“I just warmed up for too long of a time,” Reading said. “It wasn’t the altitude.”

So Reading advanced to Saturday’s final and will try to become the first Trojan to win an NCAA title since Milan Stewart took the high hurdles and Dave Kenworthy won the pole vault here in the 1982 NCAA meet.

Moreover, the Trojans have an opportunity of winning both hurdles races as George Porter had the fastest time, 49.66 seconds, in his 400 intermediate heat Wednesday night.

Reading has improved dramatically this season from a previous best personal time of 13.64 seconds.

Moreover, if he wins the 110-meter final, he would become the sixth Trojan to win an NCAA title in that event starting with world record-holder Dick Attlesey in 1950 and followed by Jack Davis, McCullouch, Jerry Wilson and Stewart.

Reading said that his improvement has come in the middle of a race, from the second to the fifth hurdle.

And he has benefited from a curious coaching combination. Ken Matsuda, the longtime former USC assistant coach, coaches Reading during the summer with his club team.

His other teacher is Jim Bush, the former successful UCLA head coach, who is now on the USC staff. Matsuda and Bush were intense rivals when they were competing against each other--and that’s a mild definition.

Otherwise, UCLA’s chances of repeating as NCAA champion got a setback when Dave Wilson failed to qualify in the hammer throw.

Wilson was expected to score high in that event but was only the 13th qualifier with a throw of 202 feet 4 inches. Twelve made it to the final and he missed it by inches.

Earlier, on a clear, warm night at the BYU facility located next to the Wasatch Mountains, UCLA got an apparent boost when Florida sprinter Dennis Mitchell false-started in his 100-meter heat and was disqualified.

Mitchell was one of the favorites to win the 100 and Florida has been generally favored to win the men’s team title.

“Even with Mitchell not qualifying, we lost as much or more with Wilson not making it to the final,” UCLA Coach Bob Larsen said.

The Bruins will be represented in the hammer final by John Knight who had a throw of 206-6. However, he has a sore back and his competitive status is in doubt.

The UCLA women’s team got a boost, though, when sophomore Tonya Sedwick finished third in the heptathlon with a personal-best score of 5,765 points.

Houston’s Jolanda Jones became a three-time NCAA winner, scoring 6,022 points.

It was only Sedwick’s third heptathlon competition and she said she was influenced to try the event this year after talking with Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic gold medalist in the heptathlon and wife of Bob Kersee, the women’s coach at UCLA.

“We’re both long jumpers, and Jackie said that the strength and speed in that event would help in the heptathlon,” Sedwick said.

Track Notes

UCLA’s Mike Marsh, who hasn’t competed in a short sprint since April 8 because of a hamstring injury, qualified for the 100 final with a time of 10.21 seconds while taking third in his heat. . . . UCLA women’s Coach Bob Kersee said hepathlete Tonya Sedwick had not competed in the 100-meter hurdles and high jump hepathlon events until this year. . . . USC’s Michelle Taylor qualified for the 400-meter final after previously qualifying for the 800 final. UCLA’s Janeen Vickers qualified for the 100-meter hurdles final with a personal best time of 13.27. She had previously qualified in the 400-meter hurdles.

UCLA qualified all three of its shotputters--Dave Wilson, Brian Blutreich and Eric Bergreen--for the final. . . . Triple jumpers McArthur Anderson of UCLA and Greg Harper of USC didn’t qualify for the final, and neither did USC’s Travis Hannah in the 400. However, USC’s Ashley Selman qualified in the women’s javelin with a throw of 171-4. In the women’s 1,600 meter relay, UCLA qualified for the final, USC didn’t.