For Boldizsar Kocsor, being at the top is becoming routine.
After winning the hammer last week at the Cal/Nevada Championships, the redshirt junior repeated his performance and took the title at the Texas Relays at the University of Texas in Austin.
“It’s one of the biggest meets of the year,” Kocsor said. “It feels great to win the event, and it’s a great confidence booster.”
Kocsor’s throw of 222 feet, 5 inches was just an inch short of his personal best but won the event by over a foot.
“It was good to get an invitational title from (Kocsor),” men’s coach Art Venegas said. “He was very convincing in the way he handled himself.”
Kocsor is ranked as the No. 1 hammer thrower in the nation.
Two other throwers had impressive results in Texas. Redshirt freshman Bo Taylor won the “B” section discus with a throw of 813-4, and All-American senior Greg Garza came in second in the “A” section with a season best of 201-10.
Another Bruin to win an event was senior Ingrid Kantola in the women’s “B” section pole vault. Reaching the height of 13-1.50, Kantola was invited to compete in the “A” section where she finished fourth with a season-best mark of 13-5.25.
Freshman Taylor Hobson qualified for regionals in the high jump as he cleared a season best of 6-10.75.
With the men’s and women’s team splitting each squad over the weekend, action from the track came from Palo Alto at the Stanford Invitational.
Senior Henry Hagenbuch highlighted the two-day event with an eighth place finish in the steeplechase.
“Henry was strong and competitive and aggressive,” distance coach Eric Peterson said. “From a coaching standpoint, that’s what you want to see.”
Hagenbuch’s time 8:52.14 puts him in the UCLA record books as the new 10th place athlete on the all-time best list in the event.
Also turning in a big time was junior Laef Barnes in the 1,500 meters.
Beating his previous best by almost six seconds, Barnes qualified for regionals with a new lifetime best of 3:44.62.
On the women’s side, the bright spot came from Krishna Curry.
The sophomore ran 2:10.27 to place first in the 800m. The time was less than half a second shy of the mark needed to qualify for nationals.
“She probably had her best meet as a Bruin,” Peterson said. “I think she is going to emerge as one of the top in the conference in the 800m.”
The time was a personal best for Curry. She also competed in the 400m and finished eighth with a time of 56.80.
“We had a couple of regional qualifiers, lifetime bests and a historical mark,” said Peterson. “We’re coming home feeling good about those accomplishments.”
This upcoming week, the Bruins will host the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational on April 10-12 at Drake Stadium.
“We’re bringing the team along slowly for the big upcoming meets,” said Venegas. “We need people to keep performing well, stay healthy and have some athletes come back from injury. I think this upcoming home meet will bring us together and get us going.”