W. track defends Cal-Nevada title
Bruins roll; Acuff, Althouse, Dumble all break records
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA women's track and field team successfully defended its California-Nevada Collegiate Championship title Saturday and Sunday at Ratcliffe Stadium in Fresno, but the Bruins' most impressive performances of the weekend might have come from across the country.
Competing in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, throwers Valeyta Althouse and Dawn Dumble turned in yet another record-breaking performance. Althouse, moving ever closer to the 60-foot barrier in the shot put, once again broke her previous school and conference record of 59-8 1/2 in that event with a heave of 59-11.
Dumble, meanwhile, broke the meet record in the discus with a throw of 186-10.
Not to be outdone back in California, UCLA sophomore Amy Acuff improved on her old school record in the high jump with a winning mark of 6-4.
Acuff's victory was one of only five for UCLA, which won nine of the 18 events in last year's championship. Nevertheless, the Bruins finished with 154 total points, easily outdistancing second-place California, which tallied 118. Fresno State was third with 90 points, Cal State Los Angeles fourth with 83, and Stanford, with 47 points, finished fifth out of the 23 schools in the competition.
Freshmen throwers Suzy Powell and Nada Kawar comfortably filled the void created by Dumble's and Althouse's absences, with Powell handily winning the discus competition (185-11) and Kawar emerging with a first-place finish in the shot put (50-0).
On the track, sophomore Cicely Scott ran a lifetime best 52.89 in the 400-meters and missed an automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships by less than three tenths of a second.
UCLA's 1,600 relay team notched a first-place finish in 3:39.48, while the 400 relay finished second in 46.30.
Senior Shelia Burrell was second in the 200 (24.33), third in the 100-meter hurdles (13.79), seventh in the long jump (17-11 3/4) and also competed in the javelin.