Coach, star runner end careers at NCAA meet

By Christina Teller

Daily Bruin Contributor

DURHAM, N.C. — Saturday marked the end of an era for the UCLA men’s track and field team.

While Saturday may have been the end of one season, it was the end of distance coach Bob Larsen’s last meet. And with senior Jess Strutzel competing in his final collegiate 800 meter run, it was a benchmark for them both.

“Each NCAA Championship has its own story. I’ll remember a lot about this one, obviously. It was a lot of fun,” Larsen said.

“Jess came here and did well, it made it much more exciting than if you don’t have that athlete right on the verge of making things happen and he’s such an exciting athlete,” he added.

Strutzel was seeded seventh for the finals, after qualifying with a preliminary time of of 1:47.13. With the projected temperature for Friday evening in the 90s, a thick blanket of humidity on top of that and stellar competition, this race was deemed to be one of the highlights of the meet.

“It’s a highlight event at the meet. It’s one of those when we knew that Jess could finish anywhere from first to sixth and still run well,” Larsen said. “Anybody else could have done the same. It’s who came out strong enough on that particular day, and those top three guys really ran a wonderful race.”

Entering the race, Strutzel was still recovering from his bout with the flu that he battled in the Pac-10 championships in Oregon two weeks ago.

“I wasn’t feeling too good coming into it. I just didn’t have it today, I just didn’t have the guts,” Strutzel said.

With Missouri’s Derrick Peterson and Brown’s Trinity Gray in the race, both Larsen and Strutzel knew the race would be fast-paced.

“Trinity took it just like I thought he would, and so the pace is right where I expected it,” Strutzel said of the first 400 meters. “I kind of got blasted a little bit and didn’t recover very well. It was just one of those off days for me.”

Strutzel fell into fifth in the final 400 meters in 1:46.39, while Patrick Nduwimana of Arizona pulled out a strong 1:45.08 to claim the title.

“His lifetime best is 1:45.81, so he would have gone beyond his lifetime best to get into the top three,” Larsen said of Strutzel, who won the indoor 800 in January. “He did what he could with what he had that day. He stayed in position where he had a shot at it with 250 meters to go, but he just wasn’t as strong as some of those other guys.”

Strutzel said the pressure of trying to win both the indoor and outdoor titles in one year didn’t weigh on him.

“The added pressure that I got was winning the indoors and people looking to see if I was going to take it again,” Strutzel said. “I usually get excited under pressure, not really intimidated.”

Junior pole vaulter Brian McLaughlin meanwhile had an off night.

“Unfortunately he wasn’t able to do it. When he was warming up, he was using a smaller pole, and so when he went to the big ones, he wasn’t ready,” pole vault coach Anthony Curran said.

Missing his first two jumps by a small margin, and over-estimating for his third and final jump, McLaughlin wasn’t able to prove his ability in this NCAA Championship competition.

“He may have been in the money if he had made the third jump,” Curran said. “That’s how it goes in the pole vault. He was unlucky on the third jump and you don’t go on after that.”

“He still looked like one of the best guys out there,” Curran added.

The Bruins ended the competition with four points, all earned by Strutzel, who ended his collegiate career with another All-America honor.

“I enjoyed it, but I’m sort of glad that it’s done,” Strutzel said. “It was a period in my life. I’m ready to start my professional career.”

Strutzel will compete at the Olympic qualifying trials next month in hopes of earning a trip to Sydney for the 2000 Games.

Rounding out the men’s competition were hurdlers John Hall and discus thrower Scott Moser. Both facing tough rounds of competition, Hall finsihed third in his heat of the semifinals with a time of 50.44 in the 400m hurdles, while Moser finished 17th with a throw of 183-7.

“We knew going in that it would be a difficult meet,” head coach Art Venegas said. “Our solution in facing next season is that we’re bringing in what I feel is the best recruiting class. It should get us back on track.”

After a competition full of heart, the Bruins ended one era and now prepare for the next.