For the men’s track and field team, the NCAA Outdoors Championships last week in Des Moines, Iowa, did not turn out as well as had been hoped.
“The meet was obviously very disappointing,” coach Art Venegas said. “We had high expectations.”
The Bruins finished in 34th place, with only three athletes scoring.
Scoring for the team were redshirt junior Boldizsar Kocsor, redshirt senior Greg Garza and redshirt freshman Johnny Quinn.
“We are thrilled with Johnny, and the big lifetime best by Boldi was a highlight for us,” Venegas said.
Kocsor’s lifetime best in javelin throwing was an improvement of almost 5 feet upon his old best, and was far enough to earn him the new UCLA record and the new UCLA junior class record.
“It felt good to get my personal best at nationals where performance matters the most,” Kocsor said. “It felt really good. I’ve definitely been working hard all season with coach Art, and it just happened at the right time.”
While Kocsor tied for third place, he was given fourth place based on the next best throw of the two that were tied.
“I fell short of the third place by like one centimeter,” Kocsor said.
Also scoring in the throws was redshirt senior Greg Garza. Competing as a Bruin for the last time in his career, Garza finished in seventh place in the discus.
“I was a little disappointed,” Garza said. “I wanted to do better; I was ranked higher. I was favored going in and I just didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. I put additional pressure on myself and I didn’t need to. I let it affect me.”
Part of the problem for Garza were the conditions in Des Moines. According to Venegas, Garza is more of a “finesse thrower” and the conditions were more conducive to strength throwers.
The final Bruin points came from Quinn, who finished tied for eighth in the pole vault.
Venegas was proud of Quinn for being so young and for having recovered from a Fall injury that put him in a body cast.
“He had a back fracture,” Venegas said. “He had to have no movement to make sure it healed properly. He couldn’t vault until January.”
Even though there were only three scoring Bruins who received All-American honors, there were two additional men who received All-American titles.
Senior Henry Hagenbuch placed 14th in the steeplechase, and sophomore Darius Savage finished 11th in the discus. Despite not finishing in the top eight, both were awarded All-American honors due to the number of foreign competitors in their events.
One of the more disappointing moments of the championships was when junior hurdler Kevin Craddock had to pull up in one of the qualifying rounds and did not make it to the semi-finals. Craddock was ranked No. 4 in his event going into nationals.
“Kevin was diagnosed and taken to the hospital two days before with strep throat, and he already had a groin injury he was nursing,” Venegas said. “The combo was the end of the rope for him competing this weekend.”
Overall, the Bruin finish was not what the team desired, but there is still optimism among those that returning next year.
“It was great that we had one of the biggest teams at the meet and I believe that only three people are graduating, so we had a lot of younger guys get experience at the meet,” Kocsor said. “Hopefully they can share that with their teammates and have some more leadership going into next year.”
Bruins in the postseason
Garza and Kocsor, who have already posted “A” automatic qualifying scores, will be competing in the Olympic Trials starting June 27 in Eugene, Ore.. In addition, Craddock and freshman Cory Primm have achieved “B” scores that may or may not qualify them for the Olympics depending on the scores of the rest of the field.
Last weekend, three Bruin freshmen traveled to Columbus, Ohio for the USA Track and Field Junior National Championships.
Freshman Dylan Knight finished third in the 3000 meter steeplechase(9:03.37), earning a spot at the World Junior Championships in Poland.
High jumper Taylor Hobson finished fifth(6-11) and Spencer Knight, Dylan’s twin brother, also ran in the steeplechase and finished seventh (9:19.73).