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Track team impresses in outdoor home-opener

Men cruise to easy

quad-meet victory

without superstars

without superstarsquad-meet victory

By Tim Costner

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

With a good part of the team away in Laramie competing in the Wyoming Indoor Invitational, the UCLA men's track team still had enough depth to prevail in its outdoor season opener on Saturday at Drake Stadium.

Easily topping UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Los Angeles and Long Beach State in dual meet scoring, the Bruins also won handily in quadrangular scoring, beating its nearest competitor ­ the 49ers ­ 82-42.

UCLA thrower Greg Hodel held down the fort for the Bruins, winning the shotput (55 feet, 1 1/2 inches), the discus (164-4) and the hammer (199-2), while UCLA won 10 out of 18 events overall.

"It was opportunity for some of the guys who are more hidden to show what they can do," UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said. "It brings the team together. We've always been about having depth on the team and having a closeness on the team. We also had a lot freshman competing for us, so we wanted to see what they could do."

Bruin freshman Gerimi Burleigh won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.78, while other winners for the Bruins included Greg Johnson in the javelin (232-10), Thomas Ganda in the long jump (22-8), Dave Rynearson in the pole vault (16-4 3/4), Brian Gastellum in the 3000m (8:21.98) and Mike Terry in the 1500m (3:56.65).

UCLA sprinter Ibrahim Hassan opened this weekend in the 4 x 100m relay, but could not compete in his strongest event ­ the 400m ­ because of a minor groin injury.

"He looked fine in the relay," Larsen said. "But he got the stick a little far back to catch the leader. We were going to run him in the 4 x 400 but his groin was a little too sore."

Injuries have been a problem for the Bruins lately, although the season is still at an early enough stage for the team to recover.

"We've got a few injuries, including both intermediate hurdlers and Gentry Bradley," Larsen said. "Gentry is a real key right now, so we hope to have him back pretty soon."

The Bruins will only have one more home meet this season ­ on April 8 ­ although the team will compete throughout the season at numerous local meets.

* * *

Results from the Wyoming meet were not available at press time.

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