After three consecutive home meets, the UCLA women’s track and field team will do something it has not done for a month: run outside of the familiar confines of Drake Stadium.
This weekend the No. 8 Bruins will make the short trip down to Walnut to compete in the 51st annual Mt. SAC Relays.
“I’m just going to see how they compete under a different environment,” coach Jeanette Bolden said. “I’m looking for them to do well in their individual events.”
UCLA will compete in Hilmer Lodge Stadium, the site of two Olympic Trials.
Coming off the homestand, not all of the team’s athletes will compete this week, and Bolden is not sure yet even if all the athletes entered in the event will compete.
“We’re going to take this week and just run a few of our team,” Bolden said. “We’re going to let everyone gather again and get into some really good training.”
A couple runners will definitely be competing, and Bolden will have an eye on them.
Sophomore Lindsey Rowe will run in the 100m hurdles and junior Krishna Curry will run in the 800m. Both have already qualified for regionals, but are looking to drop their times.
Rowe ran a season-best 13.63 last week at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational and Curry had a personal best time of 2:06.68 in her event.
Freshman Katja Goldring will also run in the 5,000m in search of a qualifier.
Away from the track, the pole vault squad will also send four athletes to Mt. SAC. Junior Katy Viuf, redshirt senior Megan Jamerson, junior Tori Pena and sophomore Tori Anthony will compete. Pena is hoping to join the other three as regional qualifiers this season.
Redshirt freshman Jade Niemeyer will compete in the hammer throw and junior Tara Ross will compete in the javelin throw. Freshman Brittany Borman will double up in the shot put and javelin.
The competition the Bruins will face will be very deep. Several top 25 teams will be well represented, including No. 2 Oregon, No. 6 Arizona State and No. 9 USC.
Aside from the college athletes, several elite level participants will be present, including a number of Olympians.
Bruin alumna Sheena (Johnson) Tosta is slated to compete in the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles. This past summer in Beijing, Tosta won the silver medal in the 2008 Olympics.
Current women’s throws coach Jessica Cosby will throw in the hammer. Other former Bruins Amy Acuff (high jump) and Suzy Powell-Roos (discus) will be in Walnut as well.
With the home meets out of the way and the big dual meet against USC and postseason meets looming, the team will use this week to prepare for those important events. The more intimate number of Bruins competing this weekend will give them a chance to focus on bettering themselves for the late season push.
“The emphasis is not for the whole team to keep competing,” Bolden said. “The emphasis now is for some individuals to improve upon their standings.”