The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Track and Field Championships and the Seattle Pacific University Final Qualifier – the last chances for UCLA track and field to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships – are just two weeks away.
This past weekend, select distance runners traveled to the Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle to compete in the Husky Invitational, where the Bruins got an early feel for the oval they’ll be returning to for the pinnacle final-chance weekend.
Sophomore George Gleason finished 26th in the men’s 5,000-meter race, an event that had some of the top distance runners in the nation – 16 of the fastest 50 times this year were run in that race.
Similarly, 18 of the 50 fastest women’s 5,000-meter times this year came in Seattle as well, though junior Roni Yamane and freshman Daniela LoCastro were still far behind the national leaders.
In the mile, a trio of Bruins were within seconds of breaking the 4-minute barrier. Sophomore Arturo Sotomayor led UCLA with a 4:04.56, while freshmen John Carter Blunt and Tyler Janes were less than 2 seconds behind with times of 4:05.71 and 4:06.06, respectively.
But it was at the Don Kirby Invitational where UCLA’s heavy hitters showed up.
Senior Austin Hazel on his last long jump flight landed at the 25-foot-7.25-inch mark, bettering his personal best by 7.25 inches. The distance is the ninth farthest in the nation thus far this year, just under a foot behind the leader.
The male jumps crew members found themselves near the top of their respective events – Hazel was fifth, freshman Tobia Bocchi was fourth in the triple jump, and sophomore Michael Burke and freshman Isaiah Holmes went 1-2 in the high jump.
Sprinter Rai Benjamin continued his dominant start to his sophomore season, running a 20.76 seconds in the 200-meter dash, finishing nearly a quarter of a second in front of the second-place finisher. His time, which was converted to 20.83 for altitude, is currently the 13th fastest in the nation.
Fellow sprinters junior Leon Powell and freshman Celera Barnes both made the finals for their 60-meter dashes. Powell finished in fifth behind Arkansas State’s Jaylen Bacon, whose adjusted-for-altitude time this weekend is the fifth fastest in the nation, Oregon’s Damarcus Simpson and two unattached runners.
Barnes finished in fourth behind Oregon’s trio of top-10 sprinters Hannah Cunliffe, Deajah Stevens and Makenzie Dunmore.
Redshirt sophomore pole vaulter Greta Wagner, whose best height in her first year of competition was good for ninth in the all-time UCLA record book, added another 1.5 inches on to that to tie Tori Anthony for eighth place at 13 feet, 10 inches.
[Related: UCLA pole vaulter Greta Wagner leaps toward NCAA regionals]
The pole vaulter won the collegiate event, and placed third overall behind first-place finisher Kristen Brown of Nike and Allison Koressel, who is fifth on the UCLA all-time list.
In the ring, redshirt sophomore Dotun Ogundeji threw a season-best 62 feet, 6.75 inches in the shot put to finish second in the event behind Colorado State’s Mostafa Hassan, who has the second-farthest throw in the nation. Ogundeji, after this weekend, has the 10th.
Barring any major surges from other throwers, he’ll be in the clear for qualifying for NCAA indoors.
For the rest of the Bruins, however, they’ll have a weekend off before their last chance to get a ticket, which is coming up in less than two weeks’ time.