UCLA women’s track athletes pass the NCAA preliminary stages

The first day of competition at the NCAA Championship’s preliminary rounds went along smoothly and according to plan for the UCLA women’s track and field team.

Each member of the squad who was expected to move past the preliminary qualifying stages and into the quarters advanced.

Senior pole vaulter Katy Viuf and sophomore Tori Pena even bypassed the remaining qualifying stages and earned spots in the NCAA Championship in their first attempts.

The pair went on to post the first- and third-best clearances in the prelims. Both Viuf and Pena successfully cleared 13 feet, 9 1/4 inches, which automatically put them into the championships.

Among the group of Bruins who will still have to go through qualifying rounds but have moved past the prelims is freshman Turquoise Thompson.

In the 400 meter hurdles, Thompson finished in sixth place. Her time of 58.97 seconds posted on Thursday suggests that she could be saving her legs for when it counts.

Thompson routinely breaks the 58 second mark, but at this stage of the prelims she doesn’t have to worry about running her best race.

Junior Ashlea McLaughlin also moved on, and she posted strong times in the 400 meter dash. Her time of 53.58 seconds was good enough for a 14th-place finish.

McLaughlin is expected to compete for the 400 meter overall title and is among UCLA’s best shots at an event win.

Senior Krishna Curry also qualified for the next stage of competition by running a time of 2:07.95 in the 800 meter.

The Bruins will finish their preliminary qualifying rounds in multiple events today.

After one day of competition at the NCAA West Regional in Austin, Texas, several Bruins qualified for the next round in their respective events.

Junior Cory Primm delivered a strong performance in the first round of the 800 meter with a time of 1 minute, 48.38 seconds. His performance was the second fastest of the day, and he finished behind only Baylor’s Chris Gowell. Redshirt junior Scott Crawford also qualified for today’s quarterfinal with a time of 1:48.98. His time was the 20th fastest of the day, so he will have to improve his position in the next round. Sophomore Jonathan Simmons came close to qualifying with his time of 1:50.06, but he could not break the top 24.

In the 1,500 meter, senior Marlon Patterson qualified for the next round with a time of 3:43.43. His time puts him in good position for the quarterfinals, which he will run on Saturday. Patterson has a season-best time of 3:42.13, so he will try to improve on that in the next round.

Redshirt junior Bo Taylor failed to qualify in the shot put. He threw a distance of 56 feet, 4 3/4 inches, and he finished 14th in the event, barely missing the top 12 spots that advanced.

Competition resumes today, and an athlete to watch for is junior Dylan Knight in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. Knight’s time of 8:43.68 ranks eighth fastest in the western region, so he has a great chance to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Saturday will bring another round of preliminary competition and feature, among others, the UCLA men’s relay teams.