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Monday, April 1, 1996

By Emmanuelle Ejercito

Daily Bruin Staff

Because of injuries to its athletes, the UCLA men's track team expected a close race against California and Kentucky, but the Bruins surprised themselves as they convincingly won the meet at Drake Stadium on March 16.

UCLA won the triangular competition with a score of 92.5. Cal finished second with 59.5 and the Wildcats finished third with 38. In dual scores the Bruins beat the Golden Bears 86.5-63.5, while against Kentucky, UCLA handily won 107-40.

Aided by the absence of their opponents' key athletes ­ Cal's top distance runner, Richie Boulet and Kentucky's champion sprinter Tim Harden did not compete ­ the ailing Bruins finished first in eight events.

"We had quite a few who were questionable," UCLA head coach Bob Larsen said. "They hadn't competed for a while or even at all this season and all of a sudden they not only competed but they either won the event or scored very high.

"Any place that we thought was questionable the guys responded with a real competitive effort."

Among the injured who showed well was Avery Anderson. Anderson, who had suffered from Achilles tendonitis and thus had not run the high hurdles all year, competed for the first time and won his event with a 14.13.

Another impressive effort was put forth by Luke Sullivan in the discus. A back problem hindered Sullivan's ability to work out in the winter, however, during the meet he threw a personal best 184-feet-9-inches to take first place.

In the distances, sophomore Mebrahtom Keflezighi outpaced his nearest competitor by 12 seconds in the 5,000 meters with a 14:31. This despite the fact that going into the meet Keflezighi only had five days of very easy running on land after a lower calf problem relegated him to running in the pool for four weeks.

Mel Moultry, who had to redshirt last season due to back surgery, jumped for an impressive 48-51Ž2 in his first competition since his freshman year ­ good for second in the triple jump.

After recovering from a slow start out of the blocks and missing first place by only three-hundredths of a second in the 100m, team co-captain Gentry Bradley's performance was inspirational.

"It was a real good day for Bradley," Larsen said. "For him to be running out there without pain, that was encouraging for all of us."

Perhaps having the best day of all for the Bruins was senior Ibrahim Hassan. Hassan won two events, the 200 (20.86) and the 400 (46.38).

"That's a very impressive double," Larsen said. "Hassan's way ahead of (where he was) last year at this time."

UCLA also had a surprising sweep in the 3,000m steeple chase. Surprising because one of its runners was recovering from a sprained ankle and another had never raced in the steeple before.

Sophomore Devin Elizondo was practically unchallenged in capturing first (9:13.06), while Matt Olin, who had only resumed hurdling a couple of days before the race due to a sprained ankle, finished second (9:28.33) and Kevin Bowes came in third (9:32.93) in his first steeple chase.

Continuing its dominance in the shot put, UCLA placed first and second in the event. Seniors Jonathan Ogden and Mark Parlin, who finished one and two at the NCAA Indoor Championship, repeated their performances at Drake. Ogden threw for a 61-41Ž4, while Parlin, still hampered by a foot injury, shot 61-11Ž4.

In the pole vault Scott Slover out-vaulted his nearest opponent by over a foot, winning his event with a 17-81Ž2 mark.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu