They’re Separate but Unequal : Track and field: UCLA and USC men have different strengths. Women’s teams are more alike.

It’s still too early in the track and field season to sort out which athletes and which teams will dominate the college scene. Even locally, where the teams have been competing outdoors for a month, little in the way of a pattern has emerged.

Except one: USC and UCLA’s men’s track teams could not be more different.

UCLA’s strength lies in its depth, but the team lacks spectacular performers in any one event. USC has no depth but has four or five athletes capable of winning NCAA titles.

The women’s teams, however, are strikingly similar. Neither has much depth, but each has at least one athlete who could dominate her event this season.

UCLA’s second home meet of the season--against Houston and Cal State Northridge--will be held Saturday, with women’s field events beginning at 11:30 a.m. at Drake Stadium. USC travels to Berkeley Saturday for a three-way meet against California and Washington.

The Bruin men are expected to do well in dual-meet competition.

“Until I see differently, we’re as good as any team in the nation,” Coach Bob Larsen said. “I think this is going to be a real strong Pac-10 team.”

The Bruins were seventh in the Pac-10 Conference meet last season.

UCLA has four All-Americans returning, led by 400-meter hurdler Marty Beck, who was fourth in the event at the NCAA meet. Beck has run 50.66 seconds this season, a time that automatically qualifies him for this year’s NCAA championships.

Beck’s versatility will be needed. Larsen said the senior will, at times, compete in the intermediate hurdles, run legs on the 400 and 1,600 relays, the 110-meter hurdles and the open 400. Beck also competes in the long jump.

Sprinter Tony Miller appears to have overcome years of problems with stress fractures in his right foot. Last season he qualified for the NCAAs in the 100 and 200, but an injury kept him from competing. The junior already has run a personal best of 10.34 seconds in the 100 meters.

McArthur Anderson returns after placing fifth in the triple jump at last year’s national championships and highlights an excellent field-event team.

Freshman thrower John Godina has qualified for the NCAA meet in the shotput with a throw of 62 feet 5 inches. He also is expected to qualify in the discus. In the javelin, the Bruins have two strong throwers in David Bunevacz, last season’s Pac-10 champion, and Erik Smith. Bunevacz has qualified with a throw of 246-10, a lifetime best.

Although USC lacks UCLA’s depth, the Trojans will probably score better than the Bruins at the NCAA meet. Arkansas won the men’s title last season with only 51 points, which suggests that if a team has four or five athletes capable of winning events, depth becomes moot.

USC Coach Jim Bush says his team has a chance to win the national championship.

“All people have to do is add,” he said. “We have the capability to do it. The key is keeping everyone healthy.”

That’s not a given, though, because sprinters and hurdlers are susceptible to pains and strains over a long season. Bush also is relying on two relay teams, one of which already has qualified, to stack up points.

Quincy Watts, ranked No. 10 in the world at 400 meters, returns after finishing second at last season’s NCAA meet. Bush sees Watts as the potential national champion at that distance if the senior can make up for three weeks of training lost to dental surgery.

Curtis Conway and Jeff Laynes are mainstays for the Trojans in the sprints. Conway lost two weeks because of spring football and has yet to reach top form. Laynes is off to a fast start, having gone undefeated in the 200 and finishing no lower than second in the 100.

Hurdler Mark Crear returns after a redshirt season. His time of 13.48 in the 110 hurdles is a personal best and the fastest by a collegian this year.

USC’s women’s team is likewise anchored by sprinters, led by sophomore Inger Miller. She has recorded the fastest collegiate time in the 100 this season, an 11.19 run last week that qualified her for the NCAA meet.

Also qualified are the Trojans’ 400 relay team and Michelle DeCoux in the 400 hurdles. Her time of 57.05 is the second fastest in the country.

Women’s Coach Barbara Edmonson says her young team will have to get by on versatility.

“We don’t have depth here,” she said. “We have our little group where you have to run anything from 100 to 400. If you run the 800, you have to run the 3,000, too.”

It would be difficult to stretch UCLA’s women any further. The Bruins lost talented thrower Melisa Weis last month when she left the team to train for the Summer Olympics. Weis was leading the nation in the discus and had the third-best mark in the shot.

Her departure leaves sophomore Dawn Dumble. Dumble won the shotput at the NCAA indoor meet last month and has qualified for the outdoor in both the shot and discus.

Then there is hard-luck sprinter Angela Burnham, who spent last season suffering from various leg injuries. She was regaining her fitness, then was seriously injured in a car accident in January.

Without Burnham healthy for the 100, 200 and a relay leg, and without Weis, the Bruins’ outlook appears modest.

“This could be an OK team by the Pac-10 meet,” UCLA assistant coach Art Venegas said.