UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Farmer Stays Home, Sows Seeds of Success

Matt Farmer just missed making the NCAA championships in the decathlon last year--he was shy by a mere 158 points out 7,480.

So you had to wonder: What could have helped put him over the top, sort of like a high-jumper clearing the bar?

Vince O’Boyle, UC Irvine’s men’s track coach, had some theories.

Here’s Farmer, a gregarious sort, a fan of the details of almost every sport, a fellow who always seems to be out and about. . . .

“Vince had some problems with my having too much night life,” Farmer said, laughing. “But honestly, it hasn’t changed that much. Instead of going out and spending my money, I stay home and carouse.”

Of course, home is a four-bedroom house Farmer shares with what he calls “a track family.”

“That house has had a lot to do with the success,” Farmer said. “Even though you might not be thinking about track all the time, you’re always doing something athletic.”

It’s a house where tastes run from track to basketball to bobsledding, the special contribution of Chris Conrad, a former UCLA decathlete who is involved with the U.S. national bobsledding team.

“That dedication thing Vince talks about is just because I had a few problems carousing,” Farmer said.

This year, O’Boyle couldn’t be more pleased with Farmer.

“He’s in the best shape of his career,” O’Boyle said. “I just hope he keeps this mind-set.”

This mind-set has helped Farmer be a double-winner in three meets already this season, taking the long jump and the triple jump each time.

“He’s done well in our dual meets,” O’Boyle said. “Now it’s a matter of putting together a great decathlon. The (Mt. San Antonio College) meet will be a big one for him. He’s capable of making the NCAAs.”

This season, the NCAA qualifying standard has edged a little higher, to 7,550. Farmer’s personal-best is 7,322--the total that won the Big West Conference title for him last spring.

Farmer says a “logical progression” for a decathlete from year to year is about 300 points, so he is hoping to make the NCAA field.

The long jump and triple jump are his best events. The one in which improvement could really come, he says, is the pole vault.

“That event, you’ve got to have a real screw loose, it seems to me,” Farmer said. “You’ve got to have . . . let’s say guts. It takes getting upside-down on a piece of fiberglass, however high it is you’re trying to get, 13 or 14 feet. Everyone says that when that happens, when I improve my pole-vaulting, my score in the decathlon will improve by leaps and bounds. It hasn’t happened yet.

“I need to work on the pole vault and the shot. Those are the two big ones.”

Farmer comes by his track ability naturally. His father, Dixon Farmer, was an NCAA hurdles champion for Occidental College in 1961, and was formerly track coach at San Diego State.

That is where Matt would have gone if the school had not decided to do away with one of its track coaches, choosing the women’s coach over Farmer.

“I decided that was not the place for me if they had no loyalty toward him,” Matt said.

Still, his “track family”--biological and residential--has kept Farmer on track all his life.

At the age of 1--true story--he set an American record for the 50-yard dash by waddling toward his dad in 26.7 seconds, as his father remembers it.

Later, Farmer nearly won three San Diego Section titles in one day, taking the title in the long jump and high jump and finishing second in the triple jump for La Mesa Monte Vista High in 1987. He went on to take sixth in the state in the high jump.

After his freshman season at Irvine, Farmer won the decathlon at the U.S. Junior Track and Field Championships.

And in his final two seasons at Irvine? Wait and see.

Four nationally ranked tennis teams and 14 ranked tennis players will compete in the 16-team Anteater/Marriott Classic beginning Thursday.

Among the top players is Irvine’s Mike Roberts, who debuted at No. 33 in the 100-man ranking after beating four ranked opponents in eight days. Roberts, a junior, is 5-1 since moving to No. 1 singles, taking over from freshman Brett Hansen-Dent, who is tied for 59th in the rankings.

The tournament’s top teams are No. 2 USC, No. 13 Irvine, No. 19 Harvard and No. 23 Mississippi.

The top singles player is fifth-ranked Nick Barone of Mississippi.

Irvine’s first tournament match is against Brown at 1 p.m. Thursday at the UCI tennis stadium, where most of the matches will be played.

Some other matches will be played at other local sites. The championship is at 1 p.m. Sunday at UCI. Admission to all matches is free.

Irvine already has received “about 20” applications for its women’s basketball coaching job, said Barbara Camp, assistant athletic director.

Camp will head a five-member search committee as it considers candidates to replace Dean Andrea, who was fired at the end of the season after 13 years as coach. The application deadline is April 19.

Although Camp said Division I coaching experience is “a priority,” she said Irvine will consider coaches from other levels, with an emphasis on Division I head coaches or assistants or head coaches from other levels.

Irvine’s goal is to name a coach by May 1.

“That might be a miracle,” Camp said. “It would be nice.”

Three Irvine women’s basketball players--Yvonne Catala, Chrissy Chang and Kari Rasmussen--will try out for the basketball team that will represent the West in the U.S. Olympic Festival this summer in Los Angeles, assistant coach Jean Ashen said.

The tryouts will be April 19-21 at Cal State Long Beach. The team will be coached by Dartmouth Coach Jackie Hullah, who played at Cal State Fullerton in the mid-’70s.

Bryant Winslow is two home runs away from tying Irvine’s school record after hitting his seventh homer of the season Monday.

Five players share the record of nine in a season.

Anteater Notes

UC Irvine’s baseball team, picked to finish sixth in the Big West Conference in a preseason coaches’ poll, opens its conference season against defending champion Cal State Fullerton in a three-game series at Anteater Field beginning Thursday. . . . Maria Akraka, the Swedish national who is considered a contender for the NCAA 800-meter title this season, will compete in the 1,500 meters Saturday in a five-way meet at Irvine. It will be the first individual appearance of the season for Akraka, and will pit her against Irvine’s Buffy Rabbitt.