The men’s track team had high hopes heading into the NCAA
Indoor Championships, but those hopes never came to fruition.
UCLA scored just two points over the weekend in Fayetteville,
Ark., as the athletes who represented the Bruins at the NCAA
Championships all fell below their expectations.
Friday, the Bruins had senior Craig Everhart and junior Brandon
Johnson competing in the qualifying rounds of the 400-meter race.
Going into the meet, Johnson had the fifth-fastest collegiate time
in the nation while Everhart held the 10th-fastest. Though the two
runners appeared to be locks to move onto the finals, they were
seeded in a heat with just three total runners, making it hard to
push the pace.
“Things obviously didn’t go the way we wanted them
too,” sprints coach Tony Veney said. “We were stuck in
the last heat with only Craig, Brandon and a kid from Baylor. We
didn’t execute the race plan very well to get into the
finals.”
Even though Everhart won the heat, his time was not fast enough
to move onto the finals.
Saturday, both Everhart and Johnson had a chance to redeem
themselves in the 4×400 meter relay along with freshman Elijah
Wells and sophomore James Rhoades. The squad had the third-fastest
time of any relay and competed in the top heat with the other top
four seeded mile relay teams. However, the Bruins suffered a rough
first leg by Everhart and never recovered, finishing third in the
heat and seventh overall in 3:08.39. Everhart was bumped during his
leg which took him out of the lead pack.
“Trying to pass one of the teams, Craig got pushed hard,
but that is an occupational hazard,” Veney said. “If
that doesn’t happen, we might have a fighting chance, but
sometimes these circumstances are out of your hands.”
Even with the disappointing finish, the Bruin mile relay team
still receives All-American honors. Despite their shortcoming,
Veney believes that this will only motivate his squad to live up to
their expectations outdoors.
“They want to show the rest of the nation that they belong
among the elite relay teams in the nation,” Veney said.
“They have a fire in their belly that is really going to
produce some good performances.”
In the field, John Caulfield had hoped to crack the top eight in
the shot put. However, the redshirt sophomore finished just short
of his goal, coming in 11th place with a throw of 60-0 1/4, nearly
two feet off of his season best.