There were a lot of highlights this weekend for the men’s track team. But of them all, it was junior Laef Barnes’ performance that stood out.
With a time of 3:59:96, Barnes became just the fourth Bruin ever to break the four-minute-mile mark. He won the event easily.
“It’s the first time I ever broke four and I did exactly what I said I would do; I was going to break four and win the race,” Barnes said. “I couldn’t think of a better time to do it than here in front a home crowd.”
Coach Art Venegas couldn’t agree more.
“I think there were a lot of magical moments,” Venegas said. “I thought the meet was just one great set of performances after another. Of course, seeing Laef Barnes doing basically a solo sub-four-minute mile was a huge highlight.”
It came down to the wire for Barnes, but with the crowd cheering him on and chanting his name he said he “just dug deep for everything I had, and it happened.”
Barnes joins an elite group of only 307 Americans that have ever run a sub-four-minute mile. He dedicated the race to his aunt who is battling cancer, who was able to come out and watch him compete.
Also finishing well for the Bruins were freshman Cory Primm and redshirt freshman Scott Crawford in the 800 meters.
They finished one-two in the event, with Primm coming out on top by less than half a second.
“I was surprised that me and Scott got one and two in it,” Primm said. “I think it’s awesome that there was such good competition and we still did so well together.”
Primm also acknowledged the achievements of his teammates as having helped push him.
“I think I wouldn’t have done so well if the steeplers hadn’t done so well yesterday and if Kevin (Craddock) hadn’t posted his mark and if (Darius) Savage hadn’t posted his mark either,” he said.
The steeplers Primm credited were redshirt junior Drew Shackleton; sophomores Kevin Sullivan, Jake Matthews, and Marco Anzures; and freshman Spencer Knight, all of whom ran lifetime bests.
Sullivan, Matthews and Shackleton, who finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, all earned NCAA regional marks with their performances Friday.
In the open portion of the competition on Friday, sophomore Darius Savage won both the discus and the shot put. His throw of 172 feet, 2 inches in the discus won him a regional qualifying mark. Savage is also practicing with the UCLA football team as an offensive lineman.
Also doing well in the throws were senior Greg Garza who won the invite portion of the discus, senior John Caulfield who was second in the discus and the shot put, and redshirt junior Boldizsar Kocsor who was second in the hammer throw.
Although Caulfield and Kocsor placed second, they were the top collegiate finishers in their events.
“Basically, what I’ve been shooting for is to start competing better and get my rhythm back, and I started doing that,” Garza said.
Opening up his high hurdle season at the meet was junior Kevin Craddock. He competed Friday in the open portion of the meet and handily won the 110m high hurdle race with a regional qualifying time of 13.73 seconds.
“There’s nobody in the country that I think could have opened up that easily and that well after all that lay off, after 10 months,” Venegas said of Craddock.
“It went well, and by the grace of God, I’m fine, I feel good,” Craddock said. “I’m just waiting until next week to get back on the track at Oregon.”
The meet certainly impressed former Bruin and Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
“Overall I think the meet went great,” Joyner-Kersee said. “Being able to have some of the colleges, as well as the world-class athletes come and compete in this meet and to hear how they say it’s really a great meet and they’re glad they put it on their schedule and to help it grow ““ I think it’s great for UCLA track and field.”