The UCLA men’s track and field team will once again have two meets on its agenda for the weekend: the NCAA Last Chance Qualifier in Washington and the UCLA Invitational.
While the majority of the team will be staying at UCLA to open up the outdoor season, a small group of five athletes will be traveling to Washington in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships in one week.
“The reason we are taking them is that they are the kids that have been on the upswing,” said coach Art Venegas. “They look like they could improve and possibly make the national meet. These guys are really ready to do some damage.”
The athletes going to Washington will be freshman Jonathan Clark in the triple jump, sophomore Darius Savage in the shot put, junior Bobby Talley, redshirt junior Dustin DeLeo and senior Chris Bencomo in the pole vault.
Out of these five athletes, only two have provisionally qualified and will go to Washington to make sure their marks hold up. Savage has thrown 59 feet, 6 3/4 inches in the shot put and DeLeo has jumped 17 feet, 6 1â„4 inches in the pole vault.
“DeLeo may actually be in the meet; we are just taking him to verify,” Venegas said. “If he beats all the ones that are there trying to qualify, then he’ll probably be in just with what he’s done.”
The three who have not qualified will need very strong performances to ensure their spots at nationals.
“They know what they have to do,” Venegas said. “They know what the levels are. It’s a tough meet for them because they have to come back with a big lifetime best, all of them, to make sure they get to nationals.”
While those heading to Washington will look to extend their indoor season, those remaining in Westwood will use this weekend to open up the eagerly anticipated outdoor season with a home meet.
Besides hosting open athletes, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Los Angeles will all be represented, creating “a pretty good opening meet,” according to Venegas.
The coaches want to see where the athletes are in their training and how they perform in their first competition.
“It’s more of an evaluation meet than anything else,” Venegas said. “We’ll have quite a few people we are taking a look at this week. Some of the kids will be running their first races of the year if they didn’t do indoor.”
This will also be the first time athletes get to compete in such events as the steeplechase and the discus because of the limitations of indoor track and field.