After a long offseason, the Bruins are ready to come out of
hibernation.
This weekend, the UCLA men’s track and field team will
compete for the first time this year at the Modrall Sperling Lobo
Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., to open up the indoor season.
While this will be its first meet, the team will still not be at
full strength as coach Art Venegas will ease his young team into
the mix, placing an emphasis on keeping his athletes healthy while
also assuring they are competitive during indoor competition.
“Our biggest priority is to keep our guys healthy for the
outdoor season,” Venegas said. “It does us no good if a
guy breaks a record in indoors one week and then gets injured the
following week. But if you see some young guys hitting the marks
they did last year, in high school or here, then that is a very
good sign for us going into outdoors.”
UCLA will be taking a limited squad to the meet this weekend,
with only portions of the hurdlers, jumpers, sprinters and throwers
seeing action. While this scarcity of athletes for the Bruins
figures to diminish as the indoor season wears on, there are some
key athletes who will not set foot on the track until the spring in
order to ensure their health for the outdoor season.
Most notably, All-American hurdler Brandon Johnson, who missed
the majority of last season with a hamstring injury, is being held
back for precautionary reasons until the team heads outdoors.
“Losing Brandon Johnson was very, very costly for us at
the Pac-10 meet,” Venegas said. “I feel very strongly
that we need to save him so that he is ready for the outdoor
season, so we can put all of our eggs in one basket.”
And while certain members will not be seeing any action for a
few months, there is still plenty of talent on the team to make
some noise at the championship level indoors. The Bruins welcome
the top recruiting class in the nation, and several of those young
stars will get to compete right from the start.
“We are at a point where we are getting several blue chip
athletes,” Venegas said. “If they progress enough and
adjust, you can see them scoring points at the national level this
year.”
In particular, prized recruit David Klech will make his debut
this weekend, though he will be running the 400-meter instead of
the hurdles, his best event. Fellow freshman hurdling phenom Darius
Reed, as well as sophomore Kevin Craddock, will open up in the
60-meter hurdle race. Klech will also compete with the young but
talented distance medley relay team, where he will run the
quarter-mile leg.
The bulk of the jumpers, distance runners and throwers will
rejoin the team in the coming weeks of competition.