For the UCLA men’s track team, the West Regionals went almost exactly as planned, with six Bruin athletes automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championships in two weeks.
“Overall the team did pretty well,” sophomore Jonathan Clark said. “People qualified for nationals, which was the main goal.”
However, one of the biggest surprises for the seventh-placed UCLA team came from the 4×100-meter relay team that entered the meet ranked second. With the top three relay teams advancing to nationals, the Bruins were feeling confident heading into the meet until junior Brandon Smith pulled a hamstring, ending their chances of continuing.
“There’s not much you can do,” coach Art Venegas said. “It’s like someone shot him with 80 meters to go. He finished but obviously couldn’t sprint anymore.”
The Pac-10 champion relay team finished last and did not qualify for the finals, although there is still a chance that it could receive an at-large bid.
“It was disappointing because we did a lot of work with our lineup,” freshman Karlton Rolle said. “There is nothing you can do about it now, just get ready for next year.”
Redshirt senior Boldizsar Kocsor in the hammer throw and Clark in the triple jump led the Bruin qualifiers.
Both qualified second in their respective events, with Kocsor throwing 213-5 feet and Clark jumping 51-8.50 feet.
“It feels really good,” Clark said. “I worked really hard this year, and I’m glad the hard work was able to pay off.”
Sophomore Cory Primm was just behind them, qualifying third in the 800m in a time of 1:49.98.
“Boldi, Jonathan and Cory all did what we thought they would,” Venegas said. “They placed high and did a great job.”
Two freshmen, Rolle and Nelson Rosario, also qualified for nationals. Rosario finished fifth in the long jump with a 24-8.25 foot jump.
Similarly, Rolle finished fifth in the 200m in 21.34, taking the last automatic bid by .01 seconds.
“Some people really don’t expect that much out of the freshmen, so I just wanted to run good,” Rolle said. “It’ll be a good experience for me going to nationals.”
Rounding out the automatic qualifiers was redshirt sophomore Bo Taylor. Coming off an injury, Taylor stepped up in time to finish fifth in the shot put with a 59-8.25 foot throw and earn himself a spot at nationals.
Sophomore jumper Taylor Hobson finished seventh in both the long jump and the high jump, just out of reach of automatic bids. He entered the meet ranked in the top five in both events.
“There’s always going to be somebody who is a little flat in the meet, and he was a little flat,” Venegas said. “He said he didn’t feel really good, but he gave it all he had. It just wasn’t his meet. So we are hoping that he will still make it in the high jump from the descending order.”
As of now, Hobson sits tied for ninth on the NCAA list.
Also narrowly missing an automatic bid was redshirt sophomore Johnny Quinn, who finished sixth in the pole vault.
A tie for fifth brought on a sudden death jump-off in which Quinn was nudged out. He ranks in the top 10 in the NCAA, so an at-large bid still might happen.
For now, the Bruins will prepare for nationals in two weeks and wait on a handful of at-large bids that have the chance to increase the number of athletes making the trip to Arkansas.