One current and two soon-to-be Bruins will be in Poland this week to compete in the World Junior Championships from July 8 to 13. Current men’s team member Dylan Knight will join female newcomers Camilla Dencer and Ryann Krais at the meet open to 18- and 19-year-olds.
The three athletes earned bids to the event by finishing in the top three at the USATF National Junior Championships two weekends ago in Columbus, Ohio.
“The athletes ran very well at the national championship,” distance coach Eric Peterson said. “The most significant part of this for any young athlete is to be exposed to international competition for the first time.”
Knight, a steeplechaser, is coming off an impressive freshman season and holds the No. 1 junior time in the country going into the national championship.
“He broke the freshman record in the steeplechase and is probably the best freshman steeplechaser we have ever had,” Peterson said.
Knight finished in third place at nationals with a time of 9:03.37 to qualify for Poland.
Dencer will compete in the 800-meter after running to a third-place finish at the national championships with a time of 2:07.88. Dencer placed fifth in the California State Championship for West Valley Christian High School in West Hills.
Krais won the heptathlon with 5217 points to earn a spot on the U.S. team in Poland.
In her final year of high school competition for Methacton High School in Pennsylvania, Krais led her team to a state title and won the 300m hurdles, high jump, and long jump. Krais also ran this past week in the Olympic Trials in the 400m hurdles.
Coach Peterson said there is more to track than the state and national levels and noted that for these three athletes, the international stage will be a new experience.
“This will be the first time they will represent the United States,” Peterson said. “That’s really the value of it. The most important uniform other than the UCLA uniform is the national uniform.”
NEW COACHES ANNOUNCED: Anthony Curran was named the overall jumps coach for both the women’s and men’s track and field teams by head coaches Jeanette Bolden and Art Venegas.
Curran has spent the past 25 seasons as pole vault coach for his alma mater and will now take over the jumps, as Mike Powell left the school to become more involved with the International Association of Athletics Federations.
“After working with Al Joyner and Mike Powell, I really learned a lot from them,” Curran said. “It’s something I wanted to do for years and we have a phenomenal team.”
This past season Curran coached freshmen Jonathan Clark and Taylor Hobson to the NCAA Championships in the triple jump and high jump, respectively, as well as both women’s and men’s Pac-10 Championships in the pole vault.
Bolden also announced that volunteer throws coach and UCLA “˜06 alumna Jessica Cosby will now become a full-time part of the staff.
“I’m just excited about the new position,” Cosby said. “I’m looking forward to the challenges that are to come and I’m ready to work.”
The women throwers have a lot to look forward to next year, learning from one of the best throwers in the nation.
This past weekend at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., Cosby won the hammer throw, setting a trials record at 232 feet and earning her a trip to Beijing in August.
CURRY TO RUN IN MEXICO: Krishna Curry, who placed 20th in the 800m at the Olympic Trials will compete for the U.S. Under-23 National Team. She will compete July 18 to 20 in the North American Central American and Caribbean Under-23 Championships in Toluca, Mexico. Curry qualified for the NCAA Championships at the end of her sophomore campaign.