UCLA’s Sua Wins Discus

UCLA sophomore Seilala Sua won her second consecutive NCAA discus title Wednesday at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Buffalo, N.Y.

Sua, with a winning throw of 210 feet 8 inches, outdistanced the rest of the field by more than 18 feet. She won the discus and shot put as last year’s NCAA meet.

Sua’s victory was worth 10 points in the Bruins’ bid to end Lousiana State’s 11-year reign as women’s champion. Along with a fourth-place finish by Suzy Powell, a sixth by Nada Kawar and a seventh by Rachelle Noble, UCLA collected a total of 20 points in the discus.

“I’m excited about winning again,” said Sua, also the 1997 Pan American Games junior champion in the discus and shot put. “I’m looking forward to the next two years.”

Arizona freshman Esko Mikkola also set meet and stadium records in winning the men’s javelin at 268-7.

Mikkola’s throw in the javelin shattered the meet record of 266-9 by Fresno State’s Todd Reich in 1994 and the stadium mark of 261-3 by South Africa’s Louis Fouche in 1993, also at the World University Games.

Josh Johnson, a UCLA senior and the son of 1960 Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson, finished fourth with a career-best 248-6.

Meanwhile, Stanford sophomore Toby Stevenson, taking all his jumps while wearing a helmet, won the pole vault with a career-best 18-2 1/2.

“It’s a roller blade hockey helmet, but it’s not as heavy as a hockey helmet,” Stevenson said.

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Plans to build a 3,000-seat track and field stadium on the USC campus and the donation of $2 million toward the project by alumna Katherine B. Loker were announced Wednesday by Athletic Director Mike Garrett.

The new facility will be named after Loker.

Her donation, part of a $17-million gift to the university, is the largest the athletic department has received from an individual. The remaining $15 million is designated to support research at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, which she and her late husband, Donald, helped establish in 1977.