Bruins run, jump, throw their way to respectable NCAA finish

Published: Monday, March 16, 1998

Monday, March 16, 1998

UCLA hangs on for 19th place as Texas rounds up national powers for victory

By Alvin Cadman

Daily Bruin Contributor

The day after the UCLA women's basketball team defeated Michigan in the 1998 NCAA Tournament and on the eve before the men would do the same, the UCLA women's track and field team had six of its finest competing at the 1998 NCAA Indoor Championships.

In Indianapolis, Ind., the Bruin women were challenged and fared well against the best in the nation from top track programs including Louisiana State University, which had won the last five track championships - until Saturday.

Texas won its fourth women's crown since 1986, stopping LSU's run of five in a row. Texas' blazing sprinting corps, led by Suziann Reid, carried the Longhorns to victory with 60 points.

Reid, the top women's 400 runner in the country entering the meet, didn't disappoint, winning in 52.57 seconds, the fastest time this season in the event. This all but ended LSU's hopes for a sixth consecutive title and ninth in 12 years.

LSU finished second in the team standings with 30 points, and Pittsburgh and Stanford tied for third with 26 each.

UCLA finished tied for 19th along with the Lady Tar Heels from North Carolina, each earning 11 points.

In the women's 200 meters, UCLA's Shakedia Jones placed eighth with a time of 23.78 seconds, 16 hundredths of a second off her personal best and one-hundredth of a second off her qualifying time for the NCAA Indoors. Lakeisha Backus of Texas won the race with a time of 23.18 seconds.

In the women's pole vault, Melissa Price of Fresno State broke her college record in the pole vault by three-quarters of an inch, soaring 13-10.

Redshirt freshman Erica Hoernig of UCLA took sixth with a vault of 12-1. This is a personal best for Hoernig and shatters her provisional indoor qualifying mark by over 3 inches.

In the women's triple jump, UCLA's Deana Simmons took sixth place with a jump of 43-7, almost 3 inches more than her indoor qualifying mark. This leap is also 3 inches longer than her personal best at the Pan-American Junior Games in Havana, Cuba, last year.

Pittsburgh's Trecia Smith completed a double in the women's horizontal jumps. She adds this triple jump title to the long jump championship she won Friday night with a leap of 46-1.

Her top jump is the best by a collegian this year.

Coming from the women's throwing events, Rachelle Noble took seventh in the women's 20-pound weight throw with a mark of 64-1, over 2 inches farther than her indoor qualifying throw.

In the shot put, UCLA sophomore Seilala Sua earned seventh place with a throw of 54-5. Following behind Sua was senior Nada Kawar, whose top throw of the afternoon was 51-9.

The Bruin women will now gear up for a dual meet next weekend at Drake Stadium against California, Air Force and UC Irvine.

The following weekend, the UCLA women's track and field team will travel to Northern California and compete in the prestigious Stanford Invitational.