Pac-10 champs ready for NCAA Championships

Published: Friday, May 29, 1998

Friday, May 29, 1998

WTRACK: UCLA ranked No. 1; team hopes to top last year's performance

By Alvin Cadman

Daily Bruin Contributor

After winning their fourth Pac-10 women's track and field championship in five years under perennial conference coach of the year Jeanette Bolden, the UCLA Bruins will travel into the NCAA Outdoor Championships with the nation's No. 1 ranking for the second year in a row.

The country's top team will make its way to the campus of State University of New York in Buffalo next week, in an attempt to win its first women's track and field championship since 1983.

The Bruin women return all but one national championship scorer from last year's final meet, held at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. UCLA placed third last year in the championship meet with a combined team score of 56 points.

Junior Joanna Hayes took seventh in the nation last year in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 57.92 seconds. Hayes fared well at last weekend's Pac-10 Championships, held at Stanford University in Palo Alto. She cruised to victory in the trials on Saturday with a time of 57.14 seconds in the 400 hurdles. Later, she clocked in a 13 second flat 100-meter hurdles time and looked to sweep both events in the finals on Sunday.

The Riverside native, as expected by the Cobb Track crowd, easily took the 100-meter hurdles, but grabbed her right hamstring after the final hurdle, 10 meters from the finish line. She collapsed following her race victory. Based on a joint decision between herself and Bolden, it was decided that she would skip the 400-meter hurdle and 1,600-meter relay.

"The hamstring is fine," said Hayes after the Bruins captured the conference title. "I should be in good shape to race by the NCAAs. I hope to perform better than I did today. I have already broken 13 seconds for the 100-meter (hurdles) and hope to do that at nationals. The Pac-10 championship is fine, but now, my focus is on the NCAAs."

Currently, Hayes is ranked third in the country in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 12.93 seconds, while holding the sixth spot in the 400-meter hurdles with an automatic qualifying time of 57.09 seconds. Both feats were accomplished against Southern Cal earlier this month.

Freshman Shakedia Jones brings a sense of youth and excitement to the UCLA women's sprinting corps that may prove to be vital to the Bruins' chance of winning the national championship this year. Her performance in the 100-meter sprint this past weekend was a sight to behold.

On Saturday, Jones blazed across the finish line in 11.33 seconds to win her heat and head into the finals the next afternoon with the top qualifying time. With stiff competition from the nation's top 100-meter sprinter, Torri Edwards of USC, Jones came out with energy on Sunday to defeat her Trojan counterpart in a time of 11.20 seconds, six-hundredths ahead of of her toughest opponent.

"I was fortunate enough to beat her (Edwards) in the 100 (meters), said Jones. "There is no rivalry between us. It just seems as if we are both always at the front. I am looking forward to doing well in the 100- and 200-meters and helping to win a national championship."

Jones is currently ranked fourth in the nation in the 100-meters with a time of 11.11 seconds, only six-hundredths, coincidentally, off the nation's top time of 11.05 seconds, held by Edwards. She is also third in the country in the 200-meters with a time of 22.84 seconds. She was a late scratch at the Pac-10 Championships in that event because the Bruins had clinched the conference title by that time. She will be a key link to the 1,600-meter relay team's success. They are currently third in the United States in the NCAA Division I ranks behind LSU and Texas.

The jumping unit, lead by sophomore Deana Simmons, will be crucial for the Bruins' chances in acquiring added team points in New York. Jumping for only the third time outdoors this season, Simmons competed well in the triple jump. She was victorious in her bid for a conference triple jump title with a top mark of 42-7.

Not to be overlooked by any means is the throwing tandem of Suzy Powell, Nada Kawar, Seilala Sua and Rachelle Noble. Their multitude of point contributions to last year's finish at the NCAA Outdoors can not be understated.

Powell, who holds the second best discus throw in American collegiate history, took second in both the discus and javelin throw at the 1997 NCAA Outdoors. She will play a key role this year with multiple automatic berths in the throwing events.

At the 1998 Pac-10 Championships, Powell placed fourth in the javelin with a top throw of 152-3 and finished third in the discus with a mark of 185-7. She is currently ranked behind Washington's Aretha Hill, the 1998 Pac-10 Women's Discus Champion and American record holder in the event. Powell is ranked eighth in the country in the javelin and should step up at the NCAA Outdoors.

"It's been a pleasure throwing with (Powell) in the same conference," says Hill about her throwing competitor. "It keeps you on your toes. It's been a great rivalry with her."

Kawar figures to play an integral role in the Bruin equation that the team hopes will equal a national championship. She placed fifth in the discus at 168-9, and took runner-up in the shot put with a throw of 56-4 3/4. She placed fourth in the shot put, and sixth in the discus last year at the NCAA Outdoors in Indiana.

Noble won the women's hammer, took runner-up in the javelin, and placed third in the shot put at the Pac-10 Championships and should be, as she has been all year long, a consistent point winner for the Bruins' title chase. She is 12th in the nation in the shot put, fourth in the discus and seventh in the hammer throw.

"I would like to score in all three events at the NCAAs," says Noble, UCLA's versatile thrower. "Everyone on the team has to do their jobs in order for us to win NCAAs. We know what we are capable of, and I think we have a good chance."

Sophomore Seilala Sua, winner of the shot put at the Pac-10s, a runner-up in the discus and third in the hammer, was the only national champion returning to the Bruin squad this year. Her throw of 200-6 in the discus at the 1997 NCAA Outdoors earned her the title of NCAA Champion. She is ranked fifth on the U.S. collegiate charts in the shot put and third in the discus.

"I would like to win the discus and the shot put at the NCAAs," said Sua, a 1997 All-American. "But the real excitement and joy will come from a national championship."