The two weeks coming up are going to be very critical for the No. 24 UCLA men’s track and field team.
The Bruins will be competing against the best all-around college and professional track and field athletes in the country, first at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas and then at the Northern Arizona Elite.
Although the Bruins are well trained, the team looks and is incomplete.
In fact, only 10 athletes will be competing at Tyson this weekend. The decision to send only a few athletes to the event is the result of coach Art Venegas’ aim to ensure a clean and successful outdoor season.
The Bruins are currently concentrating on making sure athletes remain healthy and injury-free. Moreover, they are polishing up a few of the team’s mishaps.
“David (Klech) suffered an injury to the side of his leg, (so) we have decided to hold him until outdoors,” Venegas said, concerning the freshman who was supposed to run a leg in this weekend’s relay.
“He is practicing great, and we could run him this weekend if we wanted, but we just want to be careful. It’s not worth it to have him get hurt and not be able to run at full strength outdoors, because we have a very strong outdoor team and David is a big part of that,” Venegas said.
Venegas seemed positive about the team’s future this year, mentioning breakthrough surprises of the season in sophomore Luke Barr and sophomore Laef Barnes.
“There are always guys who you don’t count on in the beginning of the season who turn out to be big factors, and this season two big surprises have been Laef Barnes in the mile and Luke Barr in the high jump. It’s always great to find people you didn’t figure on before,” Venegas said.
At the Washington Invitational, Barr tied for third when he jumped an indoor personal best of 6 feet, 10.75 inches in the high jump, and will head to the Tyson Invitational this weekend with that standing. He is very close to qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The second surprise of the season, Barnes has made a splash of his own on the track. So far, he has been just short of qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships. He missed the mark in Washington by only .69 seconds, finishing fourth overall with a mile time of 4:04.69.
Barr and Barnes are expected to translate their indoor successes to the outdoor team.