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UCLA’s Jon Rankin is among the favorites to win the NCAA title in the 1500 meters on Saturd

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M. track: Track aims for top 5 at Championships

Jeff Eisenberg
Published: Thursday, June 9, 2005

A few weeks before the track and field season began, UCLA men’s coach Art Venegas declared that his goal for the year was a top-five finish at the NCAA Championships.

For the Bruins to accomplish that goal this weekend in Sacramento, they will need to exceed even their own expectations.

UCLA, ranked No. 15 in the nation heading into the meet, doesn’t seem to have the firepower necessary to break into the top five. Of the 14 Bruins heading to Sacramento, only middle-distance runner Jon Rankin is ranked among the top three in his event before the meet.

If UCLA is going to do better than expected, it will probably have to get the bulk of its points on the track.

Rankin, who will run only the 1500 meters at the NCAAs, may be the favorite to win that event. Hurdlers Brandon Johnson and Jonathan Williams, who boast the nation’s fourth and fifth-fastest times in the 400m hurdles, are hoping to challenge All-American Kerren Clement of Florida. And sprinter Craig Everhart (400m), distance runner Erik Emilsson (steeple chase) and the members of UCLA’s 4x400m relay team are also hoping to score some points.

The most significant contribution is figured to come from Rankin, who has blossomed during his senior season. Never a factor at the national level before this spring, Rankin won the 1500m at the Pac-10 Championships and West Regionals and became the first Bruin in 25 years to run a sub-four-minute mile in April at Drake Stadium.

On Saturday, assuming he makes it through the qualifying rounds unscathed, Rankin will have a chance to add an NCAA title to his accolades. The fifth-year senior has the nation’s second-best time heading into the meet, but he defeated most of his top challengers at the West Regionals in Oregon two weeks ago.

The Bruin contingent in the field events doesn’t figure to make nearly as much of an impact.

Since senior Yoo Kim, the runner-up in the pole vault at the NCAA Championships a year ago, failed to qualify for this meet, leaving UCLA without its most accomplished athlete in the field. Instead the Bruins will have to rely on a contingent of throwers, who have never experienced success at the national level.

But the throwers didn’t get off to the best start Wednesday. Jeremy Silverman and John Caulfield failed to qualify for the finals in the shot put, and Ely Dial also didn’t qualify in the javelin.