TRACK AND FIELD / NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS : UCLA’s Hecox Runs ‘Perfect Race’ in 3,000

UCLA junior Karen Hecox pulled away on the final lap to win the women’s 3,000-meter title at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Friday.

Hecox followed a prerace strategy to keep pace with favorite Kay Gooch of Oklahoma.

When Gooch left most of the field behind at the 400-meter mark, Hecox went with her.

“In the races I’ve seen (Gooch) in, she’s left the field early and no one would go with her,” Hecox said, who won with a time of 9 minutes 22.63 seconds. “Our strategy was to stay with her until about 400 meters were left then try to pull away.

“I was the perfect race, although the time was not that fast.”

Gooch finished second, five seconds behind Hecox.

Mike Tansley of Cal State Fullerton finished sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Tansley, formerly of San Clemente High, finished the race in 8 minutes 51.48 seconds, which qualified him for All-American honors. With the honor, the senior becomes the first Cal State Fullerton track athlete to become All-American in Division I since reinstatement of the award in 1989.

For the third straight year, Louisiana State’s men’s and women’s teams won the 400-meter relays.

The men’s foursome of Eddie Kennison, Bryant Williams, Derrick Thymes and Fabian Muyaba blazed around Boise State’s Bronco Stadium track in 38.91 seconds, the fastest time by a collegiate team this year.

In the women’s relay, LSU’s team of Debbie Ann Parris, D’Andre Hill, Zundra Feagin and Cheryl Taplin romped to victory in 43.26, only 0.01 seconds off the season’s collegiate best they set at the Texas Relays in April.

“The thing is the last three years we have dominated the relays,” Muyaba said. “Mainly, it’s because we focus on the exchanges. That’s where we gain ground. We have a lot of confidence.”

Thirty minutes after running the leadoff leg on the relay, Parris came back and won the 400 hurdles for the second year in a row, in 55.54