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Monday, April 29, 1996

Eight first-place finsihes garner 153 points over two daysBy Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Staff

The UCLA women's track and field team continued its traditional domination of the California-Nevada State Championships over the weekend, scoring eight first-place finishes on the way to its third consecutive team title.

All told, the Bruins scored 153 points in the two-day event at Davis, easily outdistancing second-place Fresno State (121) and third-place California (119).

Leading the way for UCLA was Joanna Hayes, who earned an automatic ticket to next month's NCAA Outdoor Championships with a wind-aided, 13.23 first-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles.

"It was a great race considering what happened on Saturday," UCLA head coach Jeanette Bolden said. "She has the wind blowing in her face in the qualifying round and she hit the second hurdle, went in to the next lane and almost just stopped. But she stutter-stepped over the next hurdle, ended up winning her heat, and then came back and won the whole thing (on Sunday). It was a very good recovery."

Hayes, who was already qualified provisionally in both hurdle events, also won the 400-meter hurdles, though her time of 59.42 was not an improvement on her previous season-best of 58.99.

Andrea Anderson was the only other Bruin to improve her national standing, moving up the list of provisional qualifier with a wind-aided, second-place finish in the 100-meters.

She finished in 11.57, only one one-hundredth of a second slower than first-place finisher Latash Gilliam of Cal.

Gilliam was also the winner of the 200, clocking a 23.57, while Anderson earned another second-place in 23.66.

Other winners on the track were Jeanene Harlick, who finished the 5,000-meters in 17:40.92, and Darlene Malco, who cruised to victory in the 400 with a 54.79. UCLA also fielded the winning 1,600 relay team, which finished in 3:45.14.

There were no surprises on the field, where the Bruins claimed 1-2 finishes in the shot put and the discus, as well as a win in the high jump.

Valeyta Althouse tossed the shot further than 59-feet for the third consecutive week to remain undefeated on the season. Her winning mark of 59-4 3/4 was more than seven feet better than her nearest competitor, teammate Nada Kawar, whose best throw of the day flew 52-3 3/4.

Kawar was also second in the discus, where her 174-5 was well shy of the 187-8 thrown by teammate Suzy Powell.

In the high jump, Amy Acuff scored an easy victory with a leap of 6-2 ­ more than six inches better than her nearest competitor.

"(Amy) attempted 6-4 1/4 and kept knicking it with her calf," Bolden said. "Amy did well, she's finally getting healthy and everything is coming together."