Stanford Women Turn the Tables on UCLA

Finishing second behind UCLA at the Pacific 10 Conference meet had become old news for the Stanford women’s track and field team. Year after year, it seemed as though no matter how well the Cardinal performed, the Bruins had an answer in winning eight consecutive league titles.

But thanks to victories from seniors Undine Becker and Sara Bei, Stanford finally flipped the script Sunday, defeating the Bruins on their home track.

With 173 points, Stanford won its first Pac-10 women’s track title, finishing ahead of UCLA’s 125 and Arizona State’s 118 before an announced crowd of 4,586 at Drake Stadium.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been coming up short the last couple of times but this year, we all came into the meet healthy and ready,” said Becker, who won the 400-meter hurdles in 58.59 seconds. “We would not have been able to do it if not for our underclassmen. They really wanted to send the seniors off with a Pac-10 title.”

In the men’s competition, UCLA also failed to repeat as team champion, finishing second to Oregon, which was led by 400 winner Kedar Inico and Eric Mitchum, who defended his title in the 110-meter hurdles.

In the women’s competition, Bei led Stanford’s 1-2 finish in the 5,000 meters and was second to USC’s Iryna Vashchuk in the 1,500.

The Cardinal’s only other winner was Erica McLain, who set a meet and stadium record in the triple jump with a leap of 45 feet to go with her long jump title won Saturday.

It was the first time since 1996 that UCLA Coach Jeanette Bolden’s team failed to win the conference title.

“Any time you lose, it hurts,” said Bolden, who has won the conference championship 10 out of her 12 seasons as Bruin coach. “But this one doesn’t hurt as bad because my team did very well. We just ran out of ammunition.”

The Bruins had their share of standouts Sunday, starting with senior Monique Henderson, a double winner for the second consecutive year.

“It was a little bit of a disappointing day because I didn’t run the times that I wanted to run and our streak was broken,” said Henderson, who won the 200 and 400 meters in 23.06 and 51.31, respectively. “But I know that we’re going to respond to this and come back strong to defend our NCAA title.”

UCLA’s other winners were senior Jessica Cosby, who established a meet record in the hammer throw with a toss of 216 feet 10 inches after winning the shotput Saturday; sophomore Kamaiya Warren, who defeated defending champion Rachel Varner of Arizona in the discus; and junior Chelsea Johnson, who won the pole vault.

In the men’s competition, the difference for the Ducks -- who finished with 152 points to the Bruins’ 134.5 and Arizona State’s 122 -- was balance.

“Our mission was to go home champs,” said Oregon senior Leonidas Watson, who finished second in the triple and long jumps over the weekend. “Everybody came through for us and it feels good to win it over UCLA. They won it last year and we got a chance to come on their home track to take it. That’s special.”

The Bruins made things close when sophomore Brandon Johnson and senior Jonathan Williams dominated the 400 hurdles, cutting Oregon’s lead to four points with four events remaining.

“Coming into the meet, we knew that things were going to be close,” said Johnson, who pulled away from Williams over the final 100 meters to win his specialty event for the second year in a row. “We tried to do our part. We definitely tried to step up and do the job.”

Another standout for UCLA was junior Jon Rankin, who won the 1,500 and finished second behind Washington’s Ryan Brown in the 800. Rankin’s victory was the first four-lap victory for a Bruin since Bob Day, who won the mile in 1965.

USC, which finished fourth in the women’s and men’s team competitions, received strong performances from hurdler/sprinter Virginia Powell, high jumper Jesse Williams, triple jumper Allen Simms and sprinter Wes Felix.

Despite running with a sore hamstring and hip, Powell won the 100 and 100 hurdles and ran the first leg on the Trojans’ winning 400-meter relay team.

“I was a little worried because I had taken three days off leading up to the meet,” said Powell, who repeated as 100 champion. “The toughest challenge for me was to just get to the 100 final healthy.”

Williams tied a school and meet record with a leap of 7 feet 5 3/4 . He finished ahead of teammate Manjula Wijesekara, who jumped 7-1 to finish second. Simms, who finished second in the long jump Saturday, won the triple jump on his last attempt with a leap of 54 feet.

Although Felix failed to become a three-time winner in the 200, finishing second to Arizona State’s Seth Amoo, he won the 100 in 10.24.