For both the men and women’s track and field teams, a fifth place finish at the Pac-10 Championships was not the desired outcome.
“Naturally, we wanted to finish higher,” women’s coach Jeanette Bolden said. “We needed things to go in our favor.”
While conference championships have no effect on regionals or nationals, besides giving athletes another chance to achieve the qualifying marks, teams still have pride on the line and want to do well.
The men were a mere three points from a podium finish, while the women fell 32.5 points out of third.
It was a doubly disappointing finish for the women, having taken fifth last year and having set a better finish as a goal this year.
Part of the problem for the women came from the lackluster performances of many top competitors. This was reminiscent of last year when the Bruins only took one first place finish.
The team looks to seniors Nicole Leach and Rhonda Watkins for their leadership and high caliber performances, but neither was able to step up this year and pull out a win.
“Rhonda didn’t make the (long jump) finals. She had some technical difficulties,” Bolden said. “Nicole had a really hard week of practice. Her legs were kind of dead heading into the meet.”
While Watkins did not make long jump finals, she took fourth in the high jump. Leach, who did not compete in her signature 400-meter hurdles, placed second in the 400m despite coming in seeded No. 1 in the event.
Lack of depth also showed in the women’s team’s performance. Leach’s second place was only one of two for the weekend. This was the highest UCLA placed besides the 4×400-meter relays, in which the team placed first.
While the women were not satisfied with their finish last year either, they were able to rebound at regionals with a second place finish. Hopes are high that there will be a similar outcome this year.
With a much closer competition on the men’s side, the standings could have easily gone a different way for the Bruins.
“We were disappointed,” redshirt senior Boldizsar Kocsor said. “I thought we fought hard the whole weekend, and some of the teams that were hot early in the season are starting to fade and we are getting stronger.”
The men also struggled during the conference championships, only having two event wins. These came from Kocsor in the hammer and the 4×100-meter relay team of freshmen Jamal Alston and Karlton Rolle and juniors Stan Griffin and Brandon Smith.
The men’s track and field team finished third at the Pac-10 Championships and regionals last year. However, with losses due to graduating seniors and injuries, this year’s team has big shoes to fill in the quest to repeat its high finish at regionals.
Both UCLA track and field teams will compete next weekend in the NCAA West Region Championships in Eugene, Ore.
There have been young athletes stepping up, however, including freshman jumper Nelson Rosario. He competed in all three jump events at the conference championships and placed third in the long jump.
Coming from spring football, Rosario has had a lot on his plate, but focusing on postseason track has been part of his success.
“I backed off weight lifting a little bit for football, and it helped me a lot,” Rosario said. “I think if I do that again for regionals, it’ll be even better and maybe help me get to nationals.”