While most of the nation turns its attention to basketball in San Antonio this weekend, a squad from the men’s track and field team will focus on the big event occurring 80 miles south.
The No. 7 Bruins sent their throwers and jumpers to the University of Texas at Austin for the Texas Relays this Thursday through Saturday. The meet is one of the premier competitions for these events with athletes coming from all over the nation, including teams from the Pac-10, Big 12 and SEC.
“Texas is always a nice showcase,” assistant coach Tony Veney said. “It’s like a mini preview for nationals.”
Leading the way for the Bruins will be John Caulfield in the discus and shot put. The redshirt senior is coming off wins in both events last week at the Cal/Nevada meet.
“This is a high-caliber meet here,” Caulfield said. “It’s an opportunity to go up against better people and improve.”
Caulfield will try to move up in the national rankings from his No. 2 spot in the discus (197 feet 10 inches) and from his No. 3 mark in the shot put (62-7.75). His throw in the discus was a personal best by more than 3 feet.
Also headlining the throws will be junior Boldizsar Kocsor, who is No. 1 in the nation in the hammer with a personal best of 222-6 achieved last week, and All-American senior Greg Garza, who holds the No. 5 rank in the discus at 194-9.
With the depth in the discus and a high reputation of UCLA throwers, a friendly rivalry is forming between Caulfield and Garza to try to attain higher marks each week.
“It’s just friendly competition between Greg and I,” Caulfield said. “I don’t mind going first-place, second-place each week, but I’ll give him second any day.”
In the jumps and pole vault, the team may see more high marks and regional qualifiers. Freshmen Jonathan Clark and Daniel Kirkpatrick will look to improve their qualifying marks in the triple jump and high jump, respectively.
The pole vault will have some tough competition.
“The pole vault is a top-heavy event, and we could only get one athlete in the top section,” Veney said. “But the group is really hot, and when you’re hot, you have to keep going.”
Freshman Johnny Quinn heads the group after clearing a height of 17- 0.75. Other notable pole vaulters will be Juniors Dustin DeLeo and Bobby Talley.
Last week, the team won the Cal/Nevada Championships while qualifying 15 athletes for regionals. This weekend they hope to improve on the strong performance and gain more lifetime bests.
“We’re just going (to Texas) to improve on our personal records,” Caulfield said. “As long as you do that and do well, there’s not much you can ask for.”
STANFORD INVITATIONAL: With the team splitting into two squads, the other contingent, made up of distance runners, will make the trip north to Palo Alto to compete in the Stanford Invitational.
“It’s going to be an exciting weekend for us,” distance coach Eric Peterson said. “We targeted this weekend for an opportunity to get off to a strong start.”
Freshman Cory Primm will compete in the “A” section of the meet in the 800 meters.