For the second straight week, UCLA track and field had the opportunity to compete in the comforts of a home atmosphere in front of an audience that featured former UCLA track and field standout Rafer Johnson. Johnson was one of the namesakes of this weekend’s Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational.
Coming off a strong finish at the Legends Invitational from April 3-4, the Bruins seemed to have the foundations to continue to build momentum heading into this weekend’s invitational against the Oklahoma Sooners.
UCLA managed to pull off a sweep of Oklahoma, the men winning by a final score of 99-46 and the women by a final score of 104-52.
There were multiple athletes who contributed to these key team victories for the Bruins, including relay runners senior Brea Buchanan, freshman Joe Herrera and sophomore Darnell Roberson .
Buchanan won the 100 meter hurdles with a season-best time of 13.49 seconds.
“When I ran that 13.49 yesterday I was thinking about executing the last three hurdles of the race,” Buchanan said. “I focus on executing certain parts of my race before putting it all together.”
Herrera anchored the men’s 4×100-meter relay for the first time since high school. The freshman contributed a season-best time of 40.97 seconds for the relay.
“As the anchor leg of the relay, my only goal is to finish off the race in the best place possible for my teammates. I was a little nervous at first, but once I got the baton, all doubts disappeared,” Herrera said. “It just feels unreal to me that we prepared with me on the relay. I haven’t run a 4×100 since high school and I just didn’t think I had it in me, but I shocked myself with a decent leg.”
The Bruins maintained a sizeable lead for the majority of the meet. The Sooners had their share of individual victories, but it was a collective team effort from UCLA that secured the sweep for both the men’s and the women’s portions of the competition.
With the momentum UCLA has built from the past two invitationals, the Bruins look to push forward and make improvements as the season continues.
“Personally, I will not lie. I am nowhere near satisfied with our performance and I never will settle. But I feel once we keep getting more invested and gain more belief that we can roll with the big dogs, we’ll be set,” said Roberson. “We still need to get better, but in the end we are moving forward.”
The Bruins will continue their season this week as they prepare to compete in the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut. Events will begin on Thursday and conclude on Saturday.