TRACK AND FIELD / NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS : Arkansas Men, LSU Women Edge UCLA

If the NCAA awarded an outdoor track and field championship to the school with the most combined points by the women’s and men’s teams, UCLA would have been a runaway winner Saturday at the Tom Black Track.

Instead, the Bruins will have to settle for two runner-up finishes and a collegiate record by John Godina in the shotput after the women wound up second to Louisiana State, 69 points to 58, and the men placed second to Arkansas, 61 1/2 to 55.

“I couldn’t be happier with the way things came out,” said Jeanette Bolden, UCLA’s second-year women’s coach. “I can’t think of a year when both men’s and women’s teams finished this high in the same [NCAA] meet.”

Only in 1988 has UCLA fared better, winning the men’s title and finishing second to LSU in the women’s competition.

The Bruin women took this year’s battle down to the final event, but their chance for an upset disappeared when LSU won the 1,600-meter relay; UCLA finished fourth.

“Everyone on our team came through and we really made [LSU] sweat,” said Bolden, a former UCLA sprinter who won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympic women’s 400-meter relay. “In order to beat us, they had to really come up with personal bests.”

In winning their ninth consecutive title, the LSU women gained 59 of their points in the 100, 200 and 400 meters and the 400- and 1,600-meter relays. D’Andre Hill was the Tigers’ only individual winner, taking the 100 in 11.11 seconds.

“I would have liked for us to win, but I know that we gave it all that we had,” said Dawn Dumble, who won the women’s discus and finished second in the shotput Thursday for UCLA. “We weren’t really concerned about LSU because we couldn’t control what they were doing on the track anyway. We just concentrated on our own performances, but we fell short.”

Dumble, who gained her second outdoor championship, to go with her 1993 shotput title, won the discus with a throw of 187 feet 2 inches. Teammate Suzy Powell finished fifth at 176-2.

The Bruin women also picked up points from collegiate record holder Amy Acuff, who won the high jump at 6-6 1/4, and Shelia Burrell, who was fourth in the heptathlon.

In the men’s portion of the meet, UCLA recovered after losing expected 100 winner Ato Boldon to a controversial false start in Friday’s semifinal, and made the score close.

Godina, who had won the discus Wednesday, took the shotput at 72-2 1/4, defeating three-time champion Brent Noon of Georgia. Godina’s record toss was the best mark in the world this year, topping his own 71-4 3/4 effort last month, and is the best throw in the world since 1991.

“I was thinking 73 feet when I let it go,” said Godina, whose teammates, Mark Parlin and Jon Ogden, finished third and fourth. “I knew that I was going to have a big day when my first throw came off funny and I still threw 66-10. I know that I have another foot at least to go.”

Boldon, a junior, bounced back with an impressive victory in the 200 in 20.24, leading from start to finish as he made up for not being in the 100 final.

Arkansas’ balance proved to be too much for the Bruins as the Razorbacks won their fourth consecutive title, helped by Godfrey Siamusiye’s victory in the 10,000 meters and third in the 5,000, and Brandon Rock’s victory in the 800 .

“[Winning the title] was not a concern for the team during the meet,” Boldon said. “Because our coaches told us to handle our individual efforts first, and then once the meet is over we’d tally up our points and see what happens.”

Said UCLA men’s Coach Bob Larsen: “We did all we could have done and the team put together an amazing effort.”

Ron Allice, USC’s first-year coach, was also pleased with his team’s performance as the Trojans were fourth with 35 points. Ed Hervey was fifth in the 200, and the Trojans’ 1,600-meter relay team finished fourth.