The end of the quarter serves as the possible culmination of everything track and field athletes throughout the nation have been working toward all season long: nationals. However, conference championships serve as the steppingstone for these athletes to get there.
Throughout this week, various Division I NCAA conferences will host their championships, with the Pac-12’s championship being held at UCLA’s Drake Stadium this weekend.
The Bruins will face a daunting task, facing the likes of Oregon, USC and Stanford, each of whom are ranked in the top 25 in both men’s and women’s track and field. The Oregon men’s team will be looking towin this meet for the ninth consecutive year, while the women’s team will be looking for its seventh straight Pac-12 title.
Assistantsprints, hurdles and relays coach Joanna Hayes said it would be an uphill climb for the Bruins to win the championship this weekend.
“We’re definitely not going in as favorites – we’re the underdogs. There’s no pressure to win – the pressure is to perform really well with the athletes we have that have made it this far,” Hayes said. “Just because we’re not picked to win, we always do better than they have us panned out for.”
As Hayes mentioned, the Bruins will have various athletes competing this weekend who are on the brink of achieving some formidable goals. In particular, distance runner Nick Hartle is looking to push his limits, as the junior is currently ranked 20th in the nation in the 800 meters.
“You’re always trying to (achieve a personal record) every meet, but I’m just trying to run my best and, you know, qualify for nationals,” Hartle said. “I really want to score some points in the national meet, which I haven’t been able to do yet but I know I’m capable of doing. I just have to get it done.”
The 800m can be a very strategic race involving more than sheer speed. Hartle, who is ranked third in the Pac-12 heading into this weekend’s conference championship meet, will be utilizing a calm mindset this weekend.
“It’s almost like a long-distancesprint, so to speak. You don’t want to overthink it and complicate your race,” Hartle said. “I’m just trying to pace myself and not go out too fast in the first half so that I can make the most of the last bit of the race if needed.”
Joining Hartle in the 800m on the women’s side will be senior Ally Courtnall, who finished first in that event at the UCLA-USC dual meet. But Courtnall, who is ranked No. 157 in the nation in the 800m, is taking a slightly different approach to her race in Pac-12s.
“Honestly my goal is to just stay with whoever the leader of the pack is,” Courtnall said. “I wanna stay up front and finish strong so that I can advance to the (finals). Sometimes you need that extra push in the second lap so we’ve been preparing for that as well.”
This weekend’s meet will serve as a preview of the national competition to come, and it will be one of the few major meets UCLA will host in the upcoming years. Should the Bruins pull the upset in their own house, Hartle said he wouldn’t be able to put such a feeling in words.
“It would be the most special thing that I would have ever been a part of in my running career,” he said. “This meet has been dominated by Oregon and a lot of other great teams in the past years, so just knowing that if we perform to the best of our abilities, we could possibly take it – that would be indescribable.”
The streak
UCLA has had at least one Pac-12 individual champion in track and field every season for the last 50 years. Looking to extend this streak, the Bruins feature a few select athletes who could win their respective events, such as Nicholas Scarvelis. The redshirt junior is the reigning Pac-12 champion in the shot put and achieved his 2014 personal record at this very meet.
Hayes said she thinks Scarvelis can repeat.
“Our throwers are gonna perform really well,” Hayes said. “I think Nick can win again and take care of the competition.”
Aside from Scarvelis, redshirt senior Ida Storm is the favorite in her competition: the women’s hammer throw. Storm’s best throw over the season traveled more than two feet farther than the Pac-12’s next-best women’s hammer thrower – Oregon’s Jillian Weir.
But as last weekend’s Pac-12 multi-event championship evidenced, nothing is guaranteed in conference championship meets. Oregon’s Dakotah Keys entered the Pac-12 multis as the three-time reigning conference champion in the decathlon, but Keys no-heighted in the pole vault and ended up finishing 10th in the competition this year.
