University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Ross Top Collegian At Oxy Invite In Discus PR of 184-9, No. 8 In School History
May 12, 2002
This weekend (May 11-12) the UCLA women and men's track & field teams competed at the Modesto and Occidental Invitationals.
Also this weekend in Pullman, WA, Washington State hosted the Pacific-10 Heptathlon and Decathlon Championships. For the Bruin men, senior Octavious Gillespie placed seventh in the decathlon, with 6,765 points, picking up two points for Art Venegas' UCLA men's team. Also competing for the Bruins in the conference decathlon meet was junior Andrew Phillips, placing 10th with 6,464 points. The Bruin women did not have an entry in the heptathlon (Washington State's Ellannee Richardson won the event, with 5,821 points).
The 2002 Pac-10 T & F team championships will continue next weekend (May 18-19) in Pullman.
Bruin Women At Occidental
On Saturday, UCLA sent a select number of women's athletes to the
Occidental Invitational.
Leading the Bruin women on the track were ' freshman T'Carra Penick winning the 400m (56.30, personal-best), sophomore Lena Nilsson (2:05.10) and junior Jessica Marr (2:08.39) going one/two in the 800m and junior Tiffany Burgess winning the 1500m (4:25.94, personal-best).
In the field, UCLA was led by ' sophomore Julie Stevenson (5-7) and freshman Caroline Sommers (5-5) placing one/two in the high jump and seniors Bunmi Ogunleye (20-4 1/4) and Darnesha Griffith (19-11, personal-best) going one/two in the long jump.
In the throws, UCLA great Seilala Sua won both the women's shot put (55-11 3/4) and discus (198-0). Collegiately in the women's shot put, Bruin freshman Jessica Cosby (53-7), junior Chaniqua Ross (50-4 1/2) and freshman Briona Reynolds (48-4) were the top collegians. In the women's discus, Ross (184-9, personal-best, NCAA automatic qualifier, No. 8 in school history), sophomore Lara Saye (179-7) and Reynolds (171-1) were the top three collegians.
Sophomore Cari Soong won the women's hammer throw (203-2) and sophomore Karina Powell was second in the javelin (130-0).
At Modesto
The UCLA women vaulters competed at Modesto on Saturday. In the open
event, senior Heather Sickler was second (12-7 1/2, season-best, NCAA
provisional), freshman Jamie Kolar was sixth (11-7 3/4), junior Karen
Bewley was seventh (tie, 11-1 3/4) and sophomore Gail Larsen was ninth
(11-1 3/4).