UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Men’s Track Team Finds Way to Bounce Back

Three years ago, the UC Irvine men’s track and field program was dead, the victim of a financial slashing.

Three months later, it was revived, but as a mere shell of its former self, a non-scholarship team with most of its best athletes already gone.

Three years later, the program has completed a rigorous rehabilitation and is thriving. The Anteaters are not going to win any dual meets against UCLA or USC, but sometimes success can be measured in ways other than with a stopwatch.

“People say that track and field is a dead sport,” Coach Vince O’Boyle said, “but I think our program is a pretty good argument that it’s not. Especially when you look at the numbers we’ve got out here.

“Are they all scholarship athletes? No. But when you have a kid who really works to improve and he throws the javelin 120 feet one week and 140 the next week and you see the look in his eye, that means a lot. That’s worth a lot.”

There are 41 athletes on the Anteater men’s team and the numbers game figures to pay off when the Big West Conference championships begin May 12 at Long Beach State.

“I’ll be realistic,” O’Boyle said. “We’re probably not going to win. But we’re improving and we’re going to make an impact. We’re certainly better than we were last year when we finished (last).”

O’Boyle is smiling for a number of reasons these days. He feels good being able to give so many athletes an opportunity to continue competing after high school. He feels fortunate that he’s working with athletes who compete solely for the love of their sport.

And, only five members of the team are seniors so the future seems bright.

“I’m having a lot of fun this year,” he said. “I’m really enjoying it. And we can compete with a lot of good schools, too. Maybe not UCLA and USC, but a lot of good schools.”

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Young gun: Freshman Borya Orloff continues to raise the bar in the pole vault. He had a lifetime best of 16 feet 9 inches at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays Saturday.

“He’s going to be very, very good,” O’Boyle said. “He’s legit. He finished second in the State meet last year at (Bellflower) St. John Bosco with a 16-6 and made three lifetime bests in that meet. He’s only 5-7, but he’s very strong and has good speed. He really works at mastering the event.

“And now we’re going to get a couple of other good pole vaulters, Borya’s buddies who want to vault with him here. See, the wheel is starting to roll.”

The identities of the two are secret, however. O’Boyle has no scholarships to give, so no letters of intent can be signed.

“I’m not allowed to say their names until they’re enrolled in class,” he said, laughing.

The NCAA might take away some of the Anteaters’ scholarships.

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Back in the race: The athletes in Irvine uniforms won’t be the only O’Boyle proteges competing in the Steve Scott/PowerBar Invitational Saturday at the UCI Track Stadium.

Veteran distance runner Ruth Wysocki, who competed in the 800- and 1,500-meter events in the 1984 Olympics, has returned to the track. Wysocki, who has worked with O’Boyle for 22 years, won the 1,500 at the Mt. SAC Relays.

“She quit running in ’92 and then called me last October and said, ‘I want to start it up again.’ ” O’Boyle said. “I said, ‘You’re 37 years old, why do you want to this?’ She said no one else in the country seemed to be improving and she wanted to make it back into the top 10 in the U.S. rankings.

“She won easily at Mt. SAC, so she’s definitely going to be in the top 10 in the country. And she’s having fun. She’s married, has a son and is a real estate agent in Temecula where she lives. There’s really no pressure. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s a hobby now, but all she wants to do is go back out and prove she’s still has it in her.”

O’Boyle was the track coach at Citrus College when Wysocki’s father asked him to coach Ruth, then 18.

“She was the first woman athlete I’d ever coached,” he said. “She won the national championships in ‘78, made the Olympic team in ’84 and we’ve been hanging together ever since.

“It’s probably one of the longest coach-athlete relationships in the history of the sport.”

Anteater Notes

Senior forward Jinelle Williams, the No. 2 scorer and rebounder on the women’s basketball team that won the Big West tournament and made a history-making trip to the NCAAs, was runner-up in the recent Miss Irvine beauty pageant. . . . Slam Dunk Dept.: Williams won the Physical Fitness Award for the most athletic body. . . . The men’s volleyball team (9-13, 6-12 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) ends its most successful season at 7 tonight against No. 1-ranked UCLA in Crawford Hall. The Anteaters, who were 8-14 in 1990, had never won more than three conference games. . . . The women’s tennis team, which did not win a match at any position in six of its first nine matches, is 2-2 in Big West play and has won two of its last three matches. Irvine closes the regular season today and Thursday, playing host to Cal State Northridge and then Cal State Fullerton.