The UCLA women’s track and field team came in fourth place at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Championships over the weekend in Seattle, but they picked up some important qualifiers en route.
Backed by several strong performances at Dempsey Indoor Stadium, the Bruins earned 75.50 points.
“I’m very encouraged going into the outdoor season,” coach Jeanette Bolden said. “There were a lot of good performances.”
The team was highlighted by junior Danielle Watson’s win of the long jump title. Friday afternoon, Watson leaped to a distance of 20 feet, 2 1/4 inches.
“She didn’t jump as far as she could have, but the win was huge,” Bolden said.
Also on the same day Katy Viuf picked up a lifetime-best in the pole vault. The junior from Tulsa, Okla., cleared 13-5.25 en route to a second-place finish.
In the pentathlon, freshman Ryann Krais came in fourth place with a provisional NCAA qualifier. Krais scored 3,896 points by running 8.69 in the 60-meter hurdles and 2:18.94 in the 800 meters, jumping 5-4.50 in the high jump and 17-8 in the long jump and threw 38-00.25 in the shot put.
After the first day of competition, the Bruins sat in sixth place.
The themes of the second day were qualifying for nationals and improving on times that had already made it.
Senior Nicole Leach played a big role in the team moving up two spots in the MPSF standings with her run in the 400 meters and 4×400-meter relay team.
Leach ran an indoor-best in the 400m of 54.28 to qualify for NCAAs. As an anchor to the relay, Leach helped drop the UCLA time down to the No. 3 mark in the nation. Sophomore Ashlea McLaughlin, freshman Camilla Dencer, senior Krystin Lacy and Leach ran 3:37.19 to finish in second place.
“We played around with the order,” Bolden said. “We changed personnel and are just trying to find good combination.”
Junior Krishna Curry finally earned her NCAA qualifying mark after several weeks of coming close. She ran a lifetime-best of 2:07.51, improving her time by almost two seconds.
“That was huge (for Krishna),” Bolden said. “It was a big confidence booster. She is finally hitting her break.”
Other notable performances include Dencer with a third-place finish in the 400m (54.57 lifetime-best), sophomore Lindsey Rowe ran 8.59 in the 60m hurdles (third place) and redshirt freshman Ke’Nyia Richardson jumped 40-4.25 to place second in the triple jump.
Looking ahead, the Bruins have a choice of meets next weekend to pick up any last-minute qualifiers before the NCAA Championships take place in two weeks in Texas.