As Usual, Sua a Bruin Strength

Finally, the weights were over for UCLA’s Seilala Sua.

After four years of picking up heavy objects and heaving them great distances, Sua had thrown her last as a Bruin. Her collegiate career had just ended with a thud, with a season-best shotput attempt burying itself in the Wallace Wade Stadium turf Friday, long enough--56 feet 11 1/2 inches--for her sixth individual NCAA outdoor championship, unprecedented among female athletes.

Sua had just settled into a trackside folding chair to begin one final post-title interview session when Art Venegas, the UCLA men’s track coach who also doubles as Sua’s personal throwing instructor, called out from the back of the pack:

“I’d like to congratulate Seilala for winning 107 points, indoor and outdoor, at NCAA championships for us. That’s a lot more than Godina or anybody else ever did for us.”

That’s 107 en route to six outdoor championships--four in the discus throw, two in the shotput--and one indoor shotput title during her Bruin career. No other UCLA athlete is close. Dawn Dumble, 1993 shotput and 1995 discus champion, is next with 82 points, followed by John Godina, a two-time world champion in the shotput, with 81.

Sua pondered those numbers for a while.

“It’s just cool,” she said with a smile. “To think of all the athletes that have gone through UCLA--Jackie Joyner-Kersee, John Godina, Ato Boldon--it’s really crazy.”

Sua’s six outdoor championships are the most by a woman, eclipsing the previous record of five, held by Wisconsin’s Suzy Favor, who won four 1,500-meter titles and one 800-meter championship.

And her discus-shotput double here Thursday and Friday left UCLA atop the women’s standings with 44 points (20 by Sua) entering the final day of competition. Brigham Young is next with 31, followed by Arkansas with 29, Texas with 27 and USC with 24.

The Bruin women received an additional 10 points from Tracy O’Hara, who won the pole vault title with a height of 14-5 1/4, but suffered setbacks when Shakedia Jones failed to qualify for the 200-meter final and Christina Tolson placed only fourth in the shotput.

“We’re sitting on a lead, but we expected it to be more of a lead,” UCLA women’s Coach Jeanette Bolden said. “We took a couple of unexpected hits, but that’s how it is at the NCAA championships. It comes down to whoever can recover from the hits the most.”

USC suffered a seismic hit when women’s 800-meter favorite Brigita Langerholc finished eighth, managing only one point instead of a potential 10, shortly after the Trojan women’s 400-meter relay team and 400-meter hurdlers Felix Sanchez and Natasha Danvers set school records in three consecutive events.

Sanchez’s time of 48.41 seconds was the second-fastest mark in the world this year. Book-ending his victory were winning times of 43.14 seconds by the USC women’s 400-meter relay team and 55.26 seconds by Danvers in the 400-meter women’s hurdles.

Three events, three USC records--leaving the Trojan women, in particular, in promising shape, until Langerholc ran out too quickly in sweltering humidity and faded from first to last in the last 100 meters.

“My stock with this team has gone up and fallen off all year,” USC Coach Ron Allice said, “but today, it went just like 1929. . . . We had some people perform well today, but we also had some shockers. That’s the NCAAs for you. This meet will humble you.”