The men’s track and field team might be geared toward keeping key athletes healthy during the indoor season, but over the weekend, the Bruins looked to be going all out.
No. 16 UCLA headed east to Albuquerque on Friday and Saturday to take part in the Modrall Sperling Invitational hosted by the University of New Mexico for its first indoor meet of the year. While the team was competing shorthanded, opening up the season with just a limited squad, those who were participating hit the ground running.
The Bruins picked up four NCAA provisional qualifying marks.
Most notably, sophomore Kevin Craddock posted an impressive time of 7.82 seconds in the prelims of the 60m hurdle race Friday. He then went on to win the final, finishing in 7.89 seconds the following day.
Overshadowed by Craddock’s win was the solid debut of freshman Darius Reed.
Reed posted the third-fastest time in the 60m hurdle prelims at 8.00 seconds and followed that performance with a fourth-place finish in the finals, running at 8.02 seconds.
“We were really pleased with the way the young fellas started out,” sprints coach Tony Veney said. “It was a good run, no hamstring problems. What you look for more than anything else in the indoor season is how people compete, and I think they competed very well.”
Freshman Stan Griffin also had an encouraging weekend, making it to the finals of the 60m sprint and eventually finishing in sixth place at 6.94. Griffin ran 6.92 a day earlier for the Bruins, who had lacked a legitimate presence in the sprints for several seasons.
“Stan is already just off of his lifetime best at this race in the outdoors,” Veney said. “I was very encouraged by his run. If he continues like this, he could develop into a good sprinter for us down the road.”
The Bruins also had a noteworthy day in the field, especially in the jumps ““ a pair of leapers also picked up provisional qualifying marks. Junior Michael Johnson won the triple jump with a bound of 51-3.75 with teammate and fellow junior Dominique Easterling coming in third at 50-8.75. Both marks were lifetime bests.
Junior John Caulfield paced the throws team, winning the shot put at 60-8 while also notching UCLA’s final NCAA provisional qualifying mark of the weekend.
Not all was positive, however. The debut of highly touted freshman David Klech was spoiled by an injury during the 400m race, which led to his 33rd-place finish in 51.52. Klech, the 2006 Gatorade high school track athlete of the year, eased off the gas in the race as he experienced pain in his hamstring.
“It was a big surprise because he felt so good in the workouts the day before,” Veney said.
Klech was also subsequently held out of the 4x400m relay and will likely be held out until the Tyson Invitational in early February.
The team returns to the track next weekend in Seattle, Wash., for the Washington Invitational.