Powell Hopes to Hurdle From Glendale to Pac-10

Drue Powell, the 1993 state champion in the 110-meter high hurdles for Reseda High, will compete for Glendale College this school year and hopes to transfer to a Pacific 10 Conference school after his freshman season.

The City Section champion as a junior and senior, Powell timed a personal best of 13.87 seconds in the state championships in June. He was recruited by UCLA, Arizona, Washington and Cal State Northridge, but he chose Glendale after a variety of academic mishaps precluded him from attending a Pac-10 school.

Powell exceeded the NCAA-required 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and is eligible to compete at a Division I school. However, UCLA was unable to offer him an athletic scholarship because he didn’t meet the school’s entrance requirements. Arizona and Washington could not register him for fall classes because he applied too late to those schools.

“Things didn’t turn out the way I had hoped,” he said. “But it’ll be all right. Going to Glendale for a year and transferring to another school might be the best thing for me.”

Powell needs to pass 24 transferable units at Glendale with a minimum grade-point average of 2.5 to 3.0--depending on the school--to transfer to a Pac-10 university.

He had his heart set on attending UCLA in July, but fell short of meeting the general entrance requirements (850 on the SAT, 3.0 GPA) for incoming student-athletes at the Westwood school.

Arizona and Washington intensified their recruiting efforts after that, but Arizona informed Powell last week that he could not enroll into classes until the spring, and Washington did the same Monday.

Northridge pursued Powell through the end of last week, but he rejected the Matadors because he wants to attend a Pac-10 school, preferably UCLA.

“Ideally, I would like to go to UCLA because I want to major in kinesiology and sports medicine,” Powell said. “But right now, getting situated (at Glendale) is my main priority.”