Going up against a challenging field for the first time this
year, UCLA showed this past weekend at the Iowa State Classic why
it has one of the nation’s elite mile relay teams. The No. 24
Bruin 4×400-meter relay team outran a talented field to win that
event, with a time of 3:06.48 ““ the third fastest mark in the
nation. “We wanted to come in and put in a good effort and be
able to compete on a stage east of the Rockies,” sprints
coach Tony Veney said. “You want great competition, and we
knew six of the top 10 relay teams would be here. This went true to
form, exactly the way we needed to go.” Comprised of freshmen
Elijah Wells and James Rhoades, junior Brandon Johnson and senior
Craig Everhart, the mile relay team shaved over two seconds off its
season-opening time of three weeks ago, when the Bruins defeated
the rest of the field by over three seconds. On Saturday, UCLA
defeated Illinois, Northern Iowa and Alabama, teams that were all
ranked above the Bruins before the weekend. “Our goal was to
beat these guys and show them that we could run a great
time,” Johnson said. “No one expected us to run like we
did this weekend. Other schools now are going to have to look out
for UCLA.” The Bruins also saw a breakout performance from
junior Austin Ramos, who, in his first race of the season, dropped
a whopping 14 seconds off of his previous lifetime best in the
5000-meter race. Ramos’ time of 13:58.66 placed him third
overall and also was good enough for an NCAA provisional bid.
“I didn’t really know what I could do in my first race,
but I didn’t expect it to be that fast,” Ramos said.
“The race started out really fast, almost like a 3K. I just
tried to hold my own pace.”
WOMEN’S TRACK: As the two teams split
this weekend, the women traveled down to Arkansas and also posted
some impressive performances. At the Tyson Indoor Invitational, the
Bruins saw a quality first race of the year from junior
All-American Dawn Harper in the 60-meter hurdles. Harper placed
fourth in a highly competitive field, with a time of 8.18 seconds,
easily earning her an NCAA provisional qualification as she fell
just .03 seconds shy of earning an automatic bid. In the throws,
junior Kamaiya Warren continued her solid season. Warren crept
closer to earning an automatic bid in the shot put, with a throw of
54-8 ““ another lifetime best, placing her fourth in the
talented field of throwers. Also in the field, redshirt sophomore
Renee Williams slipped a bit from her strong performance of a week
ago in the long jump, jumping 18-10.75 to finish 12th. The distance
relay team, which had hoped to bring down its provisional
qualifying time, finished second. However, its time of 11:37.98 was
14 seconds slower than its previous best.