Nicholas Scarvelis stepped onto the first-place podium after winning the shot put for the second consecutive season in the Pac-12 championship meet, defending his title but also searching to improve on his 64-5.25 showing.
The redshirt junior and former Daily Bruin A&E contributor led the way for UCLA track and field, extending the team’s streak of winning at least one individual championship in the conference’s most prestigious meet to 51 years. The men’s team finished fourth and the women’s team finished fifth while Oregon won both sides of the competition.
“Defending the title is the best. A meet like this, you’d like to throw far, even if you don’t (achieve a personal record),” Scarvelis said. “It’s kind of frustrating when you’d like to throw a personal best. But at a championship meet like the Pac-12s, the number one goal is always to come out on top.”
Though Scarvelis was not completely satisfied with his showing this weekend, he set the tone for the rest of the team, which featured strong performances from the likes of senior jumper Zibby Boyer, who placed first in the women’s high jump.
Boyer came into the meet with her sights set on finishing her final championship meet on top. In order to do so, she had to out-duel two Oregon high jumpers in a three-way tiebreaker.
It was a back-and-forth battle that came down to a matter of centimeters.
After one of Oregon’s high jumpers failed to clear the high jump at the 182-centimeter mark, Boyer was left standing with just one more high jumper to beat.
“So we were in a jump-off for first and we got a fourth attempt at that (same) height,” Boyer said. “Then it went down two centimeters and neither of us made it, and then it went down two more centimeters to (5 feet 11 inches) and a quarter and she didn’t make it.”
It became a matter of who would crack under pressure first. Boyer held her ground and claimed the top spot with a 5-11.50 mark.
The senior credits her approach during practices for her successful finish.
“I’ve never been in a jump-off tiebreaker situation like that before. Our practices here, (which) we like to call endurance practices – we jump a lot (during them),” she said. “I felt prepared for a jump-off situation. I just kept thinking that I can’t give up our home turf to an Oregon girl, so I used that as fuel to make it.”
Immediately after she claimed the top spot in the women’s high jump, the crowd erupted with cheers for the senior.
The Bruins ended day one of events second in men’s and third in women’s but slipped to fourth and fifth respectively by the end of day two. Though the meet did not end as well as it started, the team had promising individual performances.
Nick Hartle’s performance is evidence of this.
The junior finished first in the men’s 800-meter event with a strong first day but ran out of steam and struggled to maintain his lead through the second day, finishing third overall, a respectable mark nevertheless.
“I was telling myself to just stay smooth, stay smooth. Let’s go,” Hartle said. “I got to the last 100 meters and I started to go with the kid from Arizona, and the Washington State kid just came flying by. That was a bummer and kind of just took my confidence away, and I wasn’t able to hold onto it.”
Regardless of some of their shortcomings, the Bruins had multiple strong performances that should carry over into the NCAA Regional from May 28-30 in Austin, Texas.