It had been four years since the UCLA men’s track and field team has taken home the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor crown.
Over the weekend, the squad regained the title.
For the No. 15 Bruins, the win was a big one for a team that felt like it was being overlooked.
“I didn’t think that we should have been ranked fifth or sixth like some people thought,” coach Art Venegas said. “We were kind of the underdogs behind ASU and Oregon. I told my team we were going to be behind heading into the final events, but we were going to be strong in the shot and vault.”
Venegas’ prediction came true as the two events helped launch the team into first place.
In the shot put, sophomore Nick Robinson threw a season-best of 60 feet, 8.75 inches to take third in the event and improve his NCAA qualifying mark.
“I think having (the top three guys in the nation there) I was able to perform better to see what those guys were doing,” Robinson said. “They were having a little bit of an off day and I was able to see that I could beat them and I can compete with them.”
Four athletes dominated the pole vault as sophomores Johnny Quinn, Casey DiCesare and Greg Woepse and senior Bobby Talley all tied for first place. Each vaulter cleared 16-11.50 to gain valuable points for the team.
“We knew that we have a really solid crew going into the meet and we were all able to step up there and we were able to perform well so it was fun,” Woepse said.
Also on Saturday, junior Marlon Patterson came in fourth in the mile with a huge lifetime-best. His time of 4:02.33 is a provisional qualifier for the Nationals. Sophomore Jonathan Clark leaped to 50-5.25 in the triple jump to take second place.
In Friday’s action, senior Boldizsar Kocsor, the only Bruin athlete with an automatic bid to the Nationals, came in second in the weight throw. He threw 68-11.25, missing first place by a mere half inch.
In the 5000m, senior Kyle Shackleton picked up a provisional qualifier by running a lifetime-best of 14:09.17 to finish seventh. His twin brother Drew Shackleton came in right behind in eighth at 14:10.40 but was .40 seconds shy of the provisional mark.
The distance medley relay team of Patterson, junior Elijah Wells, sophomore Cory Primm, and senior Laef Barnes lowered their time to 9:37.28 to place third.
In two weeks, those with provisional marks and those high enough on the descending order list plus Kocsor will compete at the NCAA Championships. That leaves one week and one meet this weekend for athletes to get a qualifier or move up the list.
“We need the last chance meet to get some more people qualified,” Venegas said. “I’m optimistic about the end of the week and getting in some quality work.”
UCLA hopes to use the MPSF title win to carry some momentum into the final weeks of the indoor season.
“I think it really boosts the team morale,” Patterson said. “We hadn’t competed well indoors but this meet got the team really fired up and came out ready to compete well.”