UCLA, USC Run Down

A severe weather warning interrupted Saturday’s final round of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships for an hour and 43 minutes, giving the coaches of the UCLA and USC women’s track teams ample time to contemplate how the title slipped away from them.

UCLA’s Jeanette Bolden knew she didn’t have enough ammunition in the final chamber.

“We just ran out of bullets,” said Bolden, whose team began the final day with a meet-leading 44 points but managed only three more because the Bruins had only two entries in the last nine events. “On the last day of the NCAAs, you have to have a lot of athletes left. It’s hard to win with only two.”

USC’s Ron Allice had enough athletes left, but he had only one Angela Williams, now a sophomore and now a two-time NCAA 100-meter champion.

“I should have entered Angela in the 200 as well,” Allice said after the Trojans finished second to Louisiana State, 58-54. “But it’s an Olympic year and we have to look after Angela’s physical well-being. I want her to make the U.S. Olympic team.”

Rather than risk overextending Williams in two events here, Allice entered her only in her specialty, the 100, and cashed in the 10 team points that come with victory. Producing her fastest time of the year, Williams repeated as women’s 100-meter titlist with a mark of 11.12 seconds, edging LSU’s Peta-Gaye Dowdie, who ran 11.23.

“Angela Williams runs as fast as she has to,” Allice said. “When she puts the hammer down, she rises to the occasion.”

If only she came in duplicate.

Then again, Allice considered himself fortunate to have the services of the original.

“She’s a talented lady and very solid as a person,” Allice said. “We should all be so lucky to have an Angela Williams once in your coaching career.”

Williams’ victory temporarily moved USC into the lead, but LSU, backloaded with point-winners in the sprints, the 100-meter hurdles and the triple jump, wore down everyone in the field, grinding out 46 points in the final day--two more than UCLA’s meet-leading total after three days.

In the men’s division, Stanford’s distance runners swamped the last-day competition to pull away for a 72-59 victory over 1999 champion Arkansas. Gabe Jennings and Michael Stember placed 1-2 at 1,500 meters, giving Stanford 18 points in the event, and brothers Brad and Brent Hauser and Jonathan Riley went 1-4-6 in the 5,000, good for an additional 18 points.

USC, with a third-place showing in the 1,600-meter relay, finished in a seventh-place tie with Alabama in the final men’s standings with 25 points.

Predictions of a down-to-the-wire finish among USC, UCLA and LSU for the women’s team title went awry, due to earlier missed opportunities by the Bruins and the Trojans.

“My torture came Thursday,” Bolden said, referring to UCLA’s failure to score in the women’s high jump and long jump. “After Thursday and Friday, I knew. Today, I was fine. I’d already accepted it.”

By not putting the competition out of reach earlier, UCLA entered the final day with only two potential point-scorers: Shakedia Jones in the 100 and Deana Simmons in the triple jump.

Jones placed sixth in 11.55 seconds, good for three points. Simmons finished 16th and failed to score when she fouled her last two attempts.

The Bruins finished third with their 47 points.

Friday’s eighth-place finish by 800-meter favorite Brigita Langerholc was a lost chance USC could not overcome. The Trojans kept close with Williams’ 100 victory, Kinshasa Davis’ second-place showing at 200 (22.79) and Anna Lopaciuch’s third-place finish in the 1,500 meters (4:16.75).

But when LSU’s Keisha Spencer won the triple jump (45 feet, 10 inches) and USC’s Tatyana Obukhova placed 10th (42-4 1/4), the Trojans’ quest for a first women’s NCAA title was all but done.

Brandi Prieto of Cal State Northridge finished second in the triple jump at 44-3 1/4.

USC entered the final event, the 1,600-meter relay, needing a 10-point victory coupled with a last-place finish by LSU to win the championship. Neither happened--the Trojans were third (3:30.89), the Tigers placed seventh.

“I think we showed that the USC is back as a program,” Allice said. “Last year, we were third. This year, we’re runners-up. Next year, we’ve got a lot of people coming back. Next year, we go for the championship.”