The most experienced member of the UCLA track and field multi-event team competing at the DeLoss Dodds Invitational in Kansas this weekend is actually one of the newest members of the team.
A transfer from Duke, redshirt sophomore Kendall Gustafson redshirted her first year in North Carolina before throwing javelin her second year for the Blue Devils. In her Bruin debut this past weekend, she clocked 9.01 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles and tied for fourth in the high jump.
“That actually wasn’t a very good high jump for me,” Gustafson said. “It’s been over two years since I’ve competitively high jumped in a meet … so my timing was a little bit off. Going into this weekend, I’m hoping to dial things in a little bit.”
It wasn’t by choice that Gustafson hasn’t high jumped for two years. She’s been rehabilitating from a torn ACL suffered in high school, and in her first year at Duke, she pulled a hamstring and dislocated her shoulder.
“I’ve learned how to deal with it rather well, but it also makes me appreciate when I am injury free,” Gustafson said. “It’s not fun to be left at home when people are going to track meets. But that being said, every injury makes you a lot stronger, and so I feel like I’ve learned a lot coming out of each one.”
Now Gustafson, happily healthy, gets to put everything together in her first pentathlon in a “very long time,” something jumps and multi-event coach Jack Hoyt is looking forward to.
“I’m excited to see how she does,” Hoyt said. “A really good score for her would be around 4000 points, which puts her in the ball park of a top-15 score on the national list. So that’s a good going.”
This weekend, UCLA’s second-largest division team will send just three athletes halfway across the country to compete at the DeLoss Dodds Invitational at Kansas State.
Joining Gustafson are sophomores Zack Bornstein and Steele Wasik, who will score their first heptathlons of the 2016 track and field season under the watchful gaze of Hoyt.
“Steele is really ready to go, and we’re hoping he qualifies for nationals this week,” Hoyt said. “Zack got a little groin strain over Christmas so he’s going to be taking it pretty carefully.”
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According to Hoyt, Bornstein will most likely forgo the hurdles this weekend to avoid augmenting the strain into a more serious tear but will be in top shape and ready to post solid scores by mid-February at the latest.
Wasik, on the other hand, is coming off of a second-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles and a high jump of nearly two meters in Arizona.
“Doing well in the high jump like that was great, but I stopped after 195 (centimeters) and didn’t take my attempt at the next height because I wanted to have that click in my form and in my competition … this coming weekend at the multi rather than in the individual meet,” Wasik said. “But everything went really well, and I’m still healthy so it was a good start to the season.”
Wasik also has a chance to put himself in a good position for NCAAs with a well-rounded performance at Kansas State.
But with the indoor track and field championships taking only the top 16 in the heptathlon, competition is intense, especially considering the caliber of the athletes in Wasik’s field this year.
“Experts and coaches have said this is going to be the most competitive NCAA heptathlon in history,” Wasik said. “The qualifying mark to get there is going to be higher than ever before. For someone like me who is young and in the game, I know I can get the mark. I just have to have the concentration at the meet.”
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5650 is the number Hoyt wants Wasik to hit, a mark that would probably put him in the top 12 nationwide. If Wasik can’t hit it this weekend, there will be three more chances at the Razorback Invitational, the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship. After that, the top 16 scorers nationwide get a bid to the NCAAs.
And so, Gustafson, Bornstein and Wasik head to Kansas to face off against a wide range of competitors from outside the Pac-12. Though nationals are still a few months away, the journey to get there begins now.