Amidst high expectations from coaches and teammates, the UCLA track and field multi-event athletes flexed their muscles, carrying the Bruins atop the leaderboard to open the Pac-12 championships.
The men’s decathlon athletes’ strong performance left UCLA in first place while the women’s heptathlon athletes left the Bruin women in second place.
Going into weekend one, the goal was clear: lead the Bruins to first place. However lofty it may have sounded, all four Bruins placed within the top six to earn points for the school.
“I think we clearly have one of the best multi-event programs in the Pac-12, and I think we displayed that here (Sunday),” said senior decathlete Dominic Giovannoni, who placed third. “Every other team usually has one good guy and they kind of fall off after that, but we have two really strong decathletes and we put in some good work this weekend.”
Junior Marcus Nilsson followed closely behind Giovannoni with a fourth place finish. The two scores earned the men’s team 11 points, good for first in the conference.
Meanwhile, the women placed second with 11 points behind the efforts of junior heptathlete Tatum Souza, who finished second, and redshirt sophomore Kimmie Conner, who finished sixth.
Both Souza and Conner set an overall score personal record and were excited to have given their teammates a good start going into the individual events next weekend.
On the men’s side, there was still some disappointment, though the ultimate goal of helping the team proved successful.
“Personally, I didn’t do what I wanted to so I’m a bit disappointed,” Nilsson said. “But even if I have had a really great meet, I still wouldn’t have placed higher so it’s great that we took as many points as we could for the team.”
For Giovannoni, he felt there was a lot more potential there and that he had left something on the table. Yet, he couldn’t be happier with the position that both the men and women left their teams in, proud of the multi-event program being built at UCLA.
“It’s just an honor to be able to represent our team in the multi-event and to know that going into next week, we did everything we could to make sure that the Bruins are back and (near) first place right now,” Souza said.
While the multi-event athletes were able to get UCLA out in front, their job is now done. They can now only watch as the individual events close the Pac-12 championships out next weekend.
“I have all the faith and confidence in the rest of my teammates that they’re all ready to keep that first place rolling,” Souza said.