The UCLA women’s distance squad got a head start on the rest of the track and field team over the weekend.
Eight athletes competed at the University of Washington Preview this past Saturday in the first indoor meet of the season.
“We typically don’t put athletes in a competition this early,” distance coach Eric Peterson said. “More often we wait until the end of January until we start competing. The reason for this meet was to give the athletes a chance to break the ice earlier.”
The top two UCLA performances of the day were both second-place finishes that were just shy of putting Bruins at the top of the podium. Both athletes were winning the race until they were caught with less than 30 meters to go.
Junior Krishna Curry turned in an indoor lifetime-best in the 800 meters with a time of 2 minutes, 11.21 seconds, bettering her previous time of 2:12.53.
Curry was just a couple seconds away from earning the provisional mark for qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
Freshman Camilla Dencer was the second athlete nipped at the end. In the 400m she came in second overall in 57.37.
“Both of those women ran very aggressively,” Peterson said. “They were beat at the finish line and competed strongly.”
In the 3,000m, freshman Katja Goldring, the leading runner for the UCLA cross country team, placed ninth with a time of 10:00.84. Sophomore Kelcie Wiemann was second in her heat at 10:37.42.
Sophomore Shannon Murakami ran 4:58.92 in the mile, winning her heat, and senior Lauren Jirges followed right behind in the same heat at 5:02.51.
In the 800m, junior Rosa Magana was fourth in her heat at 2:16.78, and senior Gabrielle Bournes was sixth in her heat at 2:22.68.
In two weeks the team will head to Nampa, Idaho, for the Bronco Invitational where better results will be expected.
“I don’t think anybody on the team hit a performance out of the park,” Peterson said. “I think we felt good about how we got started. We’re hopeful and anticipating much stronger marks across the board in two weeks.”