The legends really did show up this weekend at the Bruin Legends of Track and Field Invitational.
On Saturday, the long jump world record holder and former UCLA athlete Mike Powell walked around the green Drake Stadium field, and other acclaimed track and fielders drew applause from a sizable crowd the day before.
However, the legends that are still on the UCLA track and field team caused more uproar as they consistently broke away from the competition.
Though the meet featured many Bruin athletes competing in events they normally would not, the men and women’s teams racked up 185.3 and 173.5 points, respectively, to win the weekend.
Veteran junior sprinter Darnell Roberson competed in the long jump for the first time in his collegiate career and was third in a 1-2-3 finish behind junior Austin Hazel and sophomore Idrees Bernard.
And redshirt senior Nicholas Scarvelis, an All-American in the shot put, threw discus, instead. After one round, he has the eleventh farthest throw in the nation.
“(Scarvelis) came through with a 4 meter PR – that’s 12, 13 feet – that’s huge, that’s really a quantum leap,” said UCLA track and field director Mike Maynard. “I think (his) performace was bigger, a top 10 in the nation kind of performance, but Darnell’s performance was huge.”
Still, in a meet spread out over a long two days, athletes had the time to race their main events in addition to their off events.
Sophomore sprinter Leon Powell took first place in the 100 meter dash with a time just three-hundredths of a second off of his lifetime best, and was the anchor on UCLA’s 4×100 meter relay that finished in first place.
Powell received the baton from Roberson many strides back from the leading runner, but he took the heat by storm in the last 50 meters.
“We had a lot of people watching,” Powell said. “The 4×100 today was kind of a team threw on randomly because we had someone hurt. We had to make a few arrangements on that, and I was just trying to execute, just trying to get a good time.”
In addition to Powell’s two first place finishes, the women’s 4×100 meter relay, freshman Angie Annelus in the 100 meter dash and sophomore Jessie Maduka in the 200 meter dash also took first place. Maynard was impressed with the sprinting corps’ performance, and even featured freshman Jasmine Stauffacher-Gray as the “track person” of the meet after she ran 59.10 in the 400 meter hurdles to finish second.
“I’m actually very proud of that,” Powell said. “We had a lot of adversity in the indoor season … but most of everyone is coming back before the USC meet, so I’m glad about that, glad to see the team progress and come together. That’s kind of the key thing right now.”
Maynard’s post-meet team conference hammered that same point home. He said he was really happy with the group and how hard they’re working individually to compete together, something he believes can lead the program to a Pac-12 title.
“As long as we continue to move forward we’re getting there,” Maynard said. “As a team, we’re figuring out ways to win events, to win races and win meets both on the men and the women and I think that’s good.”
Wagner moves up the list
Outside the loop, right next to where Powell ran his 100 meter stretches, was the pole vault runway, where freshman Greta Wagner improved her personal best and climbed to ninth on the all-time UCLA pole-vaulting list.
“Ultimately I wanted to get 14 feet today,” Wagner said. “But it was nice to get a lifetime PR and jump 13’8”, especially on my second jump so I was excited about that.”
Wagner initially struggled at the 12’8” height, her pole knocking over the bar on the first two attempts.
“I knew I needed to relax,” Wagner said. “It was an easy bar for me to make so I just needed to get over it, and from there I knew I could come back easy and just as long as I made things first attempts and cleared the bars I should that I’d be back on the right track to leading.”