UA track possibly facing last qualification chances

Since most of the Wildcats couldn't set qualifying marks due to the bad weather conditions at recent meets, this weekend's Mount San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Calif., may represent the last shot for securing qualifying spots at June's NCAA Championships in Buffalo, N.Y.

"We're hoping for the first time in many weeks for good weather. With our last meet of the season only three weeks away, our goal is to set many qualifying marks for the NCAAs this weekend," Murray said.

UA's pole vaulters hope to finally show their talent after two consecutive weeks of being washed out.

"We have three vaulters who combined probably represent the best pole vaulting squad in the nation, but neither of them could possibly qualify under (previous) conditions," Murray said.

The best marks of the season by the pole vaulters were all achieved indoors while outdoors, sophomore Jeff Dutiot leads his fellow Wildcats with an attempt of 17-0 3/4 - far from a legitimate qualifying mark .

Besides weather, senior All-American Dominic Johnson also had to cope with a very tight schedule due to recent decathlon events that made it impossible for him to focus solely on the pole vault.

"Physically, I'm recovering from the exhausting decathlon, but I haven't vaulted very much recently. Therefore, my goal this weekend will be just to get the qualifying mark out of the way," Johnson said.

After taking a week off from competition, Arizona's distance runners, led by junior Amy Skieresz in the 10,000-meter and junior Abdi Abdirahman in the same event on the men's side, return to action.

Skieresz, who leads the nation in the 3,000 and 5,000, is competing for the first time this season in the 10,000.

"I'm sure both (Skieresz and Abdirahman) will run well under the automatic qualifying mark this weekend," Murray said.

The strong senior duo of Chima Ugwu and Doug Reynolds will try to repeat recent successes in the shot put and discus. Ugwu, who has already qualified automatically in both disciplines, seems to be ready for yet another outstanding result considering his great performance under strong winds last week in Tempe.

"(This meet) is going to be even tougher than last week because the opponents are among the best in the nation, but this will push me to an even better performance," Ugwu said.

Another athlete to watch this weekend will be graduate Dee Dee Buzzi, who was granted an additional athletic year by the NCAA due to health problems she suffered during her freshman year.

She is competing in the women's pole vault. Last week, at an exhibition event in Phoenix, Buzzi cleared 12-6 feet, which would secure her an automatic spot at the NCAAs.

"I actually could have jumped higher," she said, "but the conditions were really bad and I didn't want to take the risk of re-injuring myself with my big (NCAA) goal still two months ahead."