UCLA’s Baker Struts Stuff at Pacific 10 Track Meet

UCLA senior Derrick Baker won the long jump and 400-meter run at the Pacific 10 Conference championships in Berkeley last weekend to become the first athlete to earn victories in the two events in the 33-year history of the meet.

Baker also ran on two winning relay teams to help lead the Bruins to their second consecutive team conference title.

“You couldn’t ask more from him,” said USC’s Jeff Laynes, whom Baker edged at the finish of the 1,600 relay.

Baker’s time of 46.08 in the 400 was a personal best and his mark of 25-feet 1/2-inch in the long jump was his best of the season.

“Anybody who can run a 46.59 qualifying heat and within 30 minutes go out and long jump has to be crazy,” UCLA assistant Charles Yendork said. “You don’t have anything left. You have no spring. And for him to win is that much more fantastic. It was a super performance.”

The women’s meet had a winning mark of 20-4 3/4. When Baker’s first jump of 20-5 was announced, he could hear laughing in the stands. That reaction served to only ignite Baker.

“I’m a competitor,” he said. “I only want people to respect me as I respect them.”

As a sophomore at Cerritos High, Baker had a best in the long jump of 22 feet. He also competed in the triple jump and 300 hurdles. In his junior year, he moved to Chicago to live with his father and attended the Harlan Community Academy on the city’s South Side.

The transition was not easy.

One indoor dual meet in Gary, Ind., was held in the corridors of a high school. A turn on a lap would be around someone sitting in a chair in the middle of a hallway.

“The distance runners would have to go around, disappear for a while and then come back,” Baker said. “They even had the hurdles.”

Even without the best of facilities, Harlan Coach Gerald Richard was able to get Baker to take track seriously.

“He got me to become aware that there was more technique to going fast than just running,” Baker said. “I have to give him a lot of credit.”

That spring Baker competed in the long jump and triple jump at the Illinois state meet but did not advance to the finals. A few days later, Baker watched a telecast of UCLA winning the 1987 NCAA team title.

“I knew I just wanted to be there with that group,” he said.

When he returned to Cerritos for his senior year, he was determined to make an impression. He competed in the sprints, hurdles, long jump and triple jump.

“He was probably the greatest track athlete we’ve ever had,” Cerritos Coach Sam Martinez said. “He was always good for 20 points in every meet.”

Baker placed fourth in the long jump at the State meet with a leap of 23-9. Earlier that year, he competed on the 1,600 relay team for the first time and ran a leg in 49.6.

“Afterward my muscles were completely booty-locked,” Baker said of the strain in the buttocks common among quarter-milers. “I couldn’t even sit down and I didn’t have the key to unlock it.”

In his first season at UCLA, Baker had his personal bests in long jump, placing third in the Pac-10 with a 25-8 leap, and 100 with a time of 10.50. His missed his sophomore season because of an injury to his left hamstring.

In 1991, he was a reserve receiver on the football team but found that adding 20 pounds to his 5-10 1/2 frame did not help him compete in track.

“It definitely wasn’t all muscle and it showed,” Baker said. “I wasn’t very productive. I hit rock bottom. I knew I had to make a decision of choosing one sport over the other.”

As a junior, Baker ran a 45.2 leg on the UCLA 1,600 relay that placed sixth in the NCAA meet.

Yendork thinks Baker has world-class potential in the long jump.

“Concentrating on the event, he could jump 27 feet within two years,” Yendork said. “He’s very strong and he’s got the speed. But he’d have to give it a complete commitment. He’s doing too many events right now.”

Baker is unsure about his track future.

“The long jump feels so natural,” he said. “It’s all body movement. But I still haven’t become completely instinctive about the event. Some guys know how they’ve done the second they’ve hit the pit. In the 400, though, I know what I need to do to get fast.”