Last weekend, the legends were on the sidelines at the Bruin Legends of Track and Field Invitational. This weekend, they’ll be on the starting blocks alongside UCLA’s track and field team at Drake Stadium.
In a meet named after Rafer Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, two of the more renowned UCLA track and field alumni, the competition is going to match their level of achievement.
Joyner-Kersee is a six-time Olympic medalist who’s now on the board of directors for USA Track and Field, and Johnson is a two-time Olympic medalist who lit the torch for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Some of the pros at the meet this weekend could get their own Olympic medals this summer, like one pro whom freshman hurdler Jasmine Stauffacher-Gray has followed for a long time.
“Some of the elite, elite athletes in track and field history are going to be there,” Stauffacher-Gray said. “Kori Carter is going to be there. … It’s definitely big and then we have some really big time schools coming as well.”
Carter, a 2014 Stanford graduate, is the NCAA record holder in the 400-meter hurdles with a time nearly six seconds faster than Stauffacher-Gray’s personal best of 59.10 seconds she set last weekend. Stauffacher-Gray won’t race Carter in the hurdles, but Carter will be lining up against freshman sprinters Schuyler Moore and Suzie Acolatse in the 200-meter dash.
“It’s kind of funny to me to go from watching these people when I was being recruited and when I was younger, to now being able to go to the line with them,” Stauffacher-Gray said. “But it’s exciting. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep up.”
Keeping up will also be a major key for the distance team, as they will try to continue posting good times to qualify for the regional and national meets later in the season.
“We have a standard of making the regional meet, and we’re hopefully moving on to nationals,” said sophomore Myles Smith, who won the 10K last weekend with a time of 29:36.28. “The goal is to get as many people there as possible.”
Smith will take the weekend off after what he called a “numbing” 10K, but highlighted a high-profile matchup for the Bruins.
Senior distance runner Nick Hartle will be one of many competing against potential future-Olympian Boris Berian in the 800-meter run, the event that Berian won gold for USA at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in March.
Hartle is 11th in the nation in the 800 after going 1:48.04 at the Legends invite, just half a second over his all-time personal best and about three seconds behind Berian.
The pros, like Berian, will probably beat the Bruins in any event, but junior sprinter Darnell Roberson pointed out that their presence still serves a beneficial purpose.
“That’s always something to push you further,” Roberson said. “People have goals they want to hit, and you see some of these pros, and they’re already hitting it, so you have someone to chase down. It just makes the competition 10 times higher, which is what we need to get better.”
Roberson is coming off of his first-ever collegiate long jump and wanted to take to the runway again this weekend, but will run relays and the 100-meter dash instead.
According to Roberson, this weekend’s atmosphere will also be a good source of extra energy for a sprints team that’s starting to get many of its members back from injury.
“We’ve had a few key guys out like (freshman sprinter) Rai Benjamin, (sophomore sprinter) Joe Herrera, and we’re getting (junior sprinter) Jonny Moniz back,” Roberson said. “I think the energy is high. People are ready to compete and get better. It’s looking good.”
For full event seedings and lane assignments, click here.