TRACK AND FIELD / PACIFIC 10 CHAMPIONSHIPS : Oregon Is Favored as Injuries Hobble UCLA

After winning the Pacific 10 men’s track and field championship each of the last three years, UCLA Coach Bob Larsen thought his team was fortunate to have avoided injuries for so long. But the Bruin luck ran out this season, and their key performers have spent more time in the training room than on the track.

“In years past, UCLA has had everything go its way,” USC Coach Ernie Bullard said. “But this year, they’ve really had problems.”

Oregon, which upset UCLA in the 1986 Pac-10 meet, is favored to win the meet that begins today at the University of Washington.

“I think all of us will be chasing Oregon,” Larsen said. “It’s been years since we had to enter a major meet with this many people hurting.”

Here is a list of the Bruin problems:

--Steve Lewis, 1988 Olympic champion in the 400 meters, has had a strained hamstring for the last two months but appears to be fit again.

--Derrick Baker, who finished third in the long jump and ran a leg on the 400-meter relay last season, is sidelined because of a hamstring injury.

--McArthur Anderson, who finished second in the long jump and third in the triple jump last season, is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.

--Sprinter Chuckie Brooks, second in the 100 and third in the 200 last season, has been sidelined for the last four weeks, also because of a hamstring injury. Although he’s not entered in the 100 and 200, Brooks will run a leg on the Bruins’ sprint relay team and is entered in the long jump.

--Sprinter Kevin Williams, the defending 100-meter champion, reported late from spring football practice and is still working himself into condition.

--Steeplechaser Beat Ammann has a broken shoulder.

Even Art Venegas, a UCLA assistant, is injured. Venegas, who coaches the javelin, discus and shot put, was struck in the head by a javelin at the Occidental Invitational last weekend. Although he escaped serious injury, he won’t be able to attend the meet.

Oregon, runner-up to UCLA last season, was favored to win this year in a poll of conference coaches.

The Ducks have the top four qualifiers in the 10,000, including Peter Fonseca, who was third in this year’s Los Angeles Marathon. If Oregon sweeps the 10,000, today’s final event, it will be difficult to beat.

Although USC is picked to finish seventh, the Trojans have some outstanding competitors.

“I don’t look for us to score a whole lot of points, but we should win some events,” Bullard said. “We’re going to go up there (trying) not to get anyone injured, because our meet is the NCAA, where we have the quality to make a real impact.”

The Trojans’ George Porter, a two-time All-American, will be back to defend his title in the 400-meter hurdles. Although Porter was sidelined last month because of a foot injury, he has the fastest qualifying time, 50.9 seconds.

USC’s Mark Crear, who has the nation’s fastest collegiate time in the 110-meter hurdles, a wind-aided 13.55 seconds, will face Tony Li of Washington State, the NCAA indoor 55-meter hurdles champion. Although Washington State has thrived with foreign-born athletes, Li, born in Beijing, is the first Chinese-born athlete to compete for WSU.

USC’s Dietmar Haaf, who had a conference-leading long jump of 26 feet 11 3/4 inches last February to win the European Indoor title, has been bothered by an abdominal injury that sidelined him until the UCLA dual meet three weeks ago.

UCLA’s women’s team is expected to win its fourth consecutive conference title.

The Bruins’ Janeene Vickers, the defending conference champion in the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles, is expected to face a challenge from Lynda Tolbert of Arizona State at the shorter distance.

Tolbert, the 1988 NCAA 100 hurdles champion, was second in that event at the 1987 and ’88 Pac-10 meets. Arizona State was ineligible for the Pac-10 and NCAA meets last year because of rules violations.