Prestigious Penn Relays beckon m. track

Published: Friday, April 28, 1995

By Tim Costner

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

With the NCAA Championships just over one month away, the UCLA men's track and field team will compete in the Penn Relays this weekend, giving the Bruins an early idea of what to expect in June.

UCLA has automatically qualified in seven events for the NCAAs, but the trip to Philadelphia could give the team a chance to earn the nation's top ranking in some individual events.

For Bruin shotputter John Godina, the meet is an opportunity to regain the lead from Georgia's Brent Noon, who had passed Godina last week with a throw of 68 feet, one inch.

Depending on the early morning conditions, Godina expects to approach 69 feet a distance well within Godina's range right now.

"He is throwing extremely well right now in the shot," Venegas said. "The only problem with the Penn Relays is that the throws are early in the morning, and the weather can be 40 degrees. The training has been outrageous this week. He's about as good as anyone I've ever seen in the shot at any level, at any place. I'm not seeing those distances yet, but the technique and the power is phenomenal."

Joining Godina in the shot will be fellow Bruins Mark Parlin and Jonathan Ogden, who have also been training well this week.

"I'm very optimistic in the shotput," Venegas said. "Everything is starting to come together. They're really starting to throw well."

In the sprints, the Bruins will focus on the 4x100 relay, an event that has already started to come together for UCLA despite heavy training. The team of Gentry Bradley, Ato Boldon, Ibrahim Hassan and Thomas Ganda circled the track in 39.31 seconds the sixth best time in school history.

"We worked our tails off last week, and they still went out and ran fast," said UCLA sprinting coach John Smith. "I see some things that we can build on. Anyone can run fast when they're prepared to run fast I didn't prepare them to run fast. It was just time for them to do that. I think all school records are in jeopardy right now."

Aside from the 4x100, Boldon is also entered in the 100, but will probably not compete this weekend, while Ganda will compete in the long jump.

In other events, UCLA's Greg Johnson and Josh Johnson will throw the javelin, Greg Hodel will throw the hammer and Avery Anderson and Rich Pitchford will compete in the high jump. Anderson will also run the 100m high hurdles.