Reed Expulsion Shocks UCLA Coach

You might think that in 10 years as UCLA’s track and field coach, Bob Larsen would have seen it all.

Not so.

Larsen was shocked when the NCAA expelled sprinter Marcus Reed from the NCAA meet Saturday at Boise, Ida., for violating the honest-effort rule.

Reed had made a false start in the 200-meter semifinals Friday, and Red Estes, Fresno State’s coach, filed a protest, asking to have Reed thrown out of the meet, saying Reed’s false start had been unsportsmanlike. Larsen filed an appeal but it was denied.

False starts are common in the sprints, and athletes are often disqualified from the event in which they have made the false start. But it is uncommon for an athlete to be expelled from additional events because of one false start.

Larsen said he had never seen a sprinter expelled from the meet after a false start in one event.

“I think that we have to be aware that when people are running multiple races, we shouldn’t be in the business of trying to determine intent at any point in a race or in a meet like that,” Larsen said.

Earlier Friday, Reed had qualified for Saturday’s final in the 100 meters with a career best of 10.18 seconds. With that time, he had a chance to finish in the top three in the 100.

“Obviously, there was something to be gained not having Marcus in (the 100 final), especially by Fresno State because they had an athlete in the 100, also,” Larsen said.

Without Reed in the 100, Fresno State’s Terry Bowen finished fourth in 10.23. Sam Jefferson of Houston won the event in 10.12.

Estes could not be reached for comment Monday.

For Reed, a senior who won the 100 and 200 in the Pacific 10 Conference meet at Pullman, Wash., last month, there was nothing to do but deal with the disappointment of not being able to run in the national meet.

“The sprints are really like a gunfight,” Larsen said. “You’re making instant decisions, you’re very hyped up, you’re running multiple races over several days and you know at any point that it can end.

“Marcus is a very strong individual and he was very disappointed because he knew that he could be one of the top runners, if not win, in the final. But he took it in a mature way and started looking ahead to running well in the USA Track and Field Championships (June 14-18 at Knoxville, Tenn.).”

*

The USC men’s team finished 10th with 20 points in the NCAA meet, quite low considering the Trojans have won a record 26 NCAA team championships in the sport. Still, Coach Jim Bush found a reason to be proud.

“I’ve never been excited to finish 10th,” said Bush, who led UCLA to five national championships between 1965 and ’84 before taking over the USC program in 1991. “But I am (this time) because we beat all the Pac-10 schools.”

The next Pac-10 team was UCLA, which finished 12th with 18 points. UCLA won the Pac-10 meet with 135 points; USC was second with 121.5.

“We didn’t have a lot of superstars. . . . (But) I would rate them with my five national championship teams at UCLA as far as effort (goes),” he said.

University Notes

Two Southland teams won NCAA championships during the academic year, and many local athletes won NCAA individual titles. . . . The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team defeated Penn State, 15-13, 12-15, 15-11, 16-14, at Madison, Wis., in December for the area’s first national championship of the academic year. . . . No other local team won an NCAA title until the USC men’s tennis team beat Stanford, 4-3, at South Bend, Ind., on May 24 to repeat as national champions.

Several other Trojan teams came close to winning national titles. USC’s water polo team lost to Stanford, 11-9, in the NCAA final at Belmont Plaza pool in November, and its women’s golf team placed second in the NCAA behind Arizona State at Portland, Ore., on May 28. . . . The UCLA men’s volleyball team also finished second nationally when it lost to Penn State, 15-13, 4-15, 15-12, 15-12, in the NCAA final last month at Ft. Wayne, Ind.

Individually, Kristine Quance, a freshman, led the way for USC, winning four championships in the NCAA women’s swimming and diving meet at Indianapolis in March. Quance won the 200-yard individual medley, the 400 IM and the 200 breaststroke and was a member of the winning 800 freestyle relay team. . . . Brian Earley won a national title on the platform for the Trojans in the NCAA men’s swimming and diving meet at Minneapolis in March, and Balazs Kiss, a sophomore, won his second consecutive NCAA hammer throw championship last week.

For UCLA, John Godina led the way in individual titles by winning the shotput in the NCAA indoor meet at Indianapolis in March and the discus at the NCAA outdoor meet last week. Amy Acuff won the high jump in the NCAA indoor meet, and Karen Hecox the 3,000 meters in the NCAA outdoor meet. . . . In gymnastics, Jim Foody won the high bar and Steve McCain won the vault for UCLA in the NCAA men’s gymnastics meet in April at Lincoln, Neb.