With the Pac-12 championship just over three weeks away, UCLA track and field has only three regular-season meets remaining.
The first leg of that three-meet path to the postseason begins this weekend in Walnut, with a prestigious and age-old meet: the Mt. SAC Relays.
The Mt. SAC Relays is in annual track and field meet dating back to 1959. It is the largest annual track and field competition in the world with more than 13,500 participants from all age groups competing over three weekends and six days.
Senior hurdler and sprinter Brea Buchanan will participate in three events at Mt. SAC, coming off a season-best time of 13.49 in the 100-meter hurdles last weekend. Buchanan is looking to drop her time even further.
“The last three weeks I’ve competed I’ve been dropping my times, so this weekend is going to be a very high-intensity competition,” Buchanan said.
If Buchanan drops her time once again, she may break the school record – the senior currently holds the fourth-fastest 100m hurdle time in UCLA history. But Buchanan will not be able to focus solely on breaking that record, however, as she’s also running the 100 meter and participating in the 4×100-meter relay this weekend.
“I’m definitely trying to focus on the hurdles; everything else is just to keep me in sprinting shape,” Buchanan said. “I’m trying to leave a legacy behind.”
In addition to Buchanan, redshirt junior thrower and Daily Bruin writer Nicholas Scarvelis will also compete this weekend. Scarvelis just recently threw his lifetime best – 19.82 meters – at the Legends of Track and Field Invitational on April 3 and 4. This weekend’s meet is bigger than the Legends invitational, giving Scarvelis a greater platform to perform on.
“With guys who are Olympians in the field throwing 6 or 7 feet further than you, it’s hard to go in there thinking you’re going to out-throw everyone,” Scarvelis said. “You try and use the energy that those guys bring to the meet, and you feed off it and eventually bring your own.”
Scarvelis said he did just that at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Championship in late February. He said he used the energy of the highly competitive meet to his advantage, and ended up throwing a conference-best 19.54 meters.
Scarvelis will use this approach to achieve his ultimate goal: becoming a first-team All-American. Scarvelis has knocked on the door of the All-American first team two times over the past year – in the 2014 outdoor season, he missed first-team All-American by two spots and in the 2015 indoor season he missed the designation by two spots again. These almost-but-not-quite finishes have sparked a fire in Scarvelis for this outdoor season. As Scarvelis put it himself: “All-American or nothing.”
“(An) All-American spot … is what I’ve wanted since the indoor season, and didn’t get,” Scarvelis said. “So that’s kind of given me extra motivation for outdoors.”
Scarvelis and Buchanan are not the only Bruins to have achieved season bests this year. Senior pole vaulter Elena Clarke achieved her own season best last weekend – 13-1.75 feet – at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational in Drake Stadium. Clarke suffered an avulsion fracture in February and has made strides in coming back.
“I’m just excited to get out there and feel healthy and powerful,” Clark said. “I just want to have fun and soak it all in, enjoying the last few meets of my senior year.”
Contributing reports by Matthew Joye, Bruin Sports senior staff.