Huge thanks to Jack Rosenfeld for emailing us this report and some great pictures from yesterday's dual meet at Drake. GO BRUINS. -N
The UCLA men's Track and Field team won the annual dual meet on Saturday by a score of 89 - 74 Southern Cal at Drake Stadium (all time record vs Southern Cal is 34-41). After losing last year, the Bruins won their 28th victory over Southern Cal in the past 30 scoring meets. The men took advantage of the distance races, the field events, and the 110 m Hurdles to build a comfortable lead such that the meet was clinched before the triple jump and the 1600 meter Relay were completed. UCLA swept the 5000m, 3000m Steeplechase, High Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Put and Discus.
Kevin Craddock ran a very impressive 13.46 seconds, winning the 110m Hurdles.
More pictures and wrapup after the jump ...
In the Shot Put and the Discus, UCLA Football Guard Darius Savage scored a total of 6 points by placing second in both of these events with marks of 17.96m and 57.09m respectively:
As mentioned Bruins took advantage of the distances races:
The women's competition was a different story. The women started off the day with a 3 -6 deficit after taking second place in the Hammer Throw competition on Friday. Then they took second place in the Javelin--the first event of Saturday's competition--giving the Trojans an early 12 -6 advantage. The deficit continued to grow after taking second and third in the 5000m and third in the 3000m Steeplechase. By the time the first relay started, the Bruins were already down 25 - 11. The women staged a comeback including sweeping the 800 m, High Jump, and Pole Vault, as well as great performances by Nicole Leach and Jolanda Diego in winning the 400m Hurdles and the 200m respectively.
With three events left and 23 points still at stake (the 1500m, Triple Jump, and 1600m Relay) the Bruins had a slight 2 point lead. Yet UCLA could not dig deep enough to capture the victory. UCLA took second in the 1500 meters, which gave Southern Cal an 1 point lead. Then Trojans won the 1600m Relay by 2.55 seconds, which gave them a 6 point lead with only the Triple Jump yet to complete. At that time, USC was going 1-2 in the Triple Jump and UCLA would need to overtake both of those top two positions to win the meet. Renee Williams, with her fourth round jump of 12.88 meter overtook second place, but neither she nor Keneisha Creary could over take Southern Cal's Michelle Sanford as Southern Cal beat UCLA for the first time since 1992 86 -77. Here are some pictures of the women's competition:
The complete results of the meet can be found here. For those that are not too aware of the scoring of dual meets in Track and Field: the top three places in all events--except relays--score points. First place is worth 5 points, second place is worth 3 points, and third place is worth 1 point. Relays are scored 5 points for the winner and 0 points for the loser.
This is also Coach Jeanette Bolden's first dual meet loss in 73 attempts during her 14 year tenure as the women's head coach. UCLA now leads the series 21 - 4.
- Jack Rosenfeld