Track and field sets high all-time marks, more personal records in Saturday meet

While fans were celebrating the legacy of two Bruin legends, two Bruin throwers had a chance to add to theirs.

UCLA track and field honored the two best multi-event athletes in Bruin history at the 17th annual Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational on Saturday. Sophomore Alyssa Wilson climbed to ninth on the NCAA all-time hammer throw list and redshirt senior Dotun Ogundeji notched the fourth-best shot put attempt in UCLA history.

“It was definitely a memorable day,” said throwing coach John Frazier. “(The throwers) needed a weekend like this … (I’m) very proud of (Ogundeji and Wilson).”

Wilson logged her third consecutive hat trick of victories in the hammer throw, shot put and discus – winning all nine of the events she last competed in. Wilson’s final attempt in the shot put would have been a personal record nearing 18 meters, but officials controversially ruled the try foul.

“Even though I won, I was expecting a lot of further throws than that,” Wilson said. “(One official) was going to mark it, then the other (official) was like, ‘I think that’s a foul.’ … We went back to the video, and long story short, it wasn’t a foul.”

After winning her second event in the discus, Wilson closed Saturday by improving upon her school record and climbing to ninth all-time on the NCAA record list with a 70.63-meter toss in the hammer throw.

“I’m glad that I finally broke the 70-meter barrier,” Wilson said. “Now I’m up there on the world-class level with the other 70-meter throwers. … It still feels surreal to me.”

Ogundeji took second place in a shot put field consisting of five Bruins. Ogundeji’s new personal record of 21.05 meters propelled him to fourth all-time on UCLA’s outdoor list, past friend and former teammate Nicholas Scarvelis. It was Ogundeji’s first shot put personal record in two years because of injuries and a recovering shoulder.

“Scarvelis was actually one of the first people to congratulate me on my new (personal record),” Ogundeji said. “He called Frazier and was extremely excited when he heard.”

Ogundeji said the personal record meant more having accomplished a goal he set at the start of the season.

“I hit the world championship standard for (the International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar), which was my main goal since the beginning of the year.”

Ogundeji’s personal record came on his second flight and incited a reaction consisting of shouts of excitement and praise from Frazier. Ogundeji turned to freshman Otito Ogbonnia preparing for his third attempt and told him to join him at the distance.

Ogbonnia climbed to 15th in the nation with a personal-best throw of 19.43 meters in the shot put on his next try.

“When I hit my throw I didn’t want to be the only one to have a good day,” Ogundeji said. “I want to encourage them to be able to enjoy the thrill of having a big throw and personal record just like I did. … I love seeing young throwers step up in meets and put on a show.”

Ogundeji tossed a career-best 58.83 meters to win the discus earlier on Saturday and sits at tenth place in the nation, now holding regional qualifying spots in two events.

On the track side, sophomore Tyler Janes and Oklahoma runner Luke George were neck-and-neck heading into the final lap of the 1500-meter race. Janes leapfrogged George in the final 200 meters to defeat him by 0.04 seconds.

Guttormsen won the men’s pole vault – but it wasn’t freshman Sondre Guttormsen who claimed first place. Rather, Sondre’s younger brother, Simen Guttormsen, participated in the event unattached and was the only competitor to jump over the 5.12-meter bar. Sophomore Tate Curran was runner-up with his second-place vault of 4.97 meters.

Prior to the last two events of the meet, the Bruin seniors lined up to face the stands in the final hometown showing of their UCLA careers.

“Leaving my mark in the manner that I did makes it even more special, since I will know I left it all out there for my last time,” Ogundeji said.

Women’s tennis regains footing over weekend to take penultimate matchup victory

The Bruins have not lost back-to-back games all season.

No. 10 UCLA women’s tennis (15-6, 7-2 Pac-12) lost to No. 42 Washington State (18-8, 3-6) 2-4 on Friday, but bounced back to defeat No. 15 Washington (17-3, 7-2) 4-1 on Sunday in its penultimate regular-season matchup.

The doubles point against Washington State was decided on the second doubles court as the Bruins and Cougars split the matches on courts one and three.

The No. 12 duo of freshman Elysia Bolton and redshirt junior Jada Hart prevailed over Washington State’s combination of Melisa Ates and Yang Lee 7-6 (7-5).

The Hollingberry Fieldhouse has only four courts; therefore, singles play initially began with the top four singles matches. No. 25 Bolton was sidelined because of illness and the Cougars started strong by taking three of the four first sets.

“She got sick after doubles,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “She wasn’t fit to play, so we had to pull her.”

Every match except senior Alaina Miller’s encounter went to three sets. Two of the five three-setters were decided by third-set tiebreaks. Sampras Webster said the close matches are indicative of the caliber of the conference.

“It’s giving us great competition so it prepares us for NCAAs,” Sampras Webster said. “It prepares us more for the big tournament.

Sophomore Abi Altick’s 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) loss on court three put the Bruins down 3-1.

The match was clinched on court five as senior Gabby Andrews was downed 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2) by the Cougars’ Aneta Mikovska, leaving freshman Taylor Johnson’s match on court six unfinished.

The Bruins kept the same doubles lineup against the Huskies on Sunday to clinch the doubles point for the ninth straight match. No. 5 senior duo of Andrews and Ayan Broomfield clinched the point with a 6-3 victory on court one.

“Washington State was tough – tough conditions and tough atmosphere,” Broomfield said. “But it was great that (Andrews) and I could bounce back and help the team clinch the doubles point.”

UCLA and Washington split the first sets in singles three apiece.

Bolton secured the second point for the Bruins with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the Huskies’ Vanessa Wong on the second court. Shortly thereafter, Andrews toppled Kenadi Hance on the sixth court 6-2, 7-5 to put UCLA on the brink of a whitewash.

“We had a team meeting after that match,” Andrews said. “We wanted to make sure we would bring the energy for Washington and we did that.”

Altick was defeated 7-6, 6-2 on court four. The remaining courts all went to four sets.

Broomfield secured the victory for the Bruins with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 win against Washington’s Natsuho Arakawa. Both of Broomfield’s matches this weekend went to three sets.

“When you step on the court, you have to be prepared to go the distance,” Broomfield said. “I wasn’t too concerned because everyone on our team is pretty fit.”

UCLA next will face No. 13 USC (17-5, 7-2) on Saturday at Marks Stadium to conclude its regular season slate.

Men’s golf’s Devon Bling shines in Masters tournament on par with pros

A Bruin stood out on one of golf’s biggest stages.

Sophomore Devon Bling finished 55th at 3-over in the 2019 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.

“It’s an amateur’s dream to be able to play in the Masters,” Bling said. “Luckily enough, I was able to do that, and it was pretty much a dream come true for me.”

Bling earned an invite to the Masters after finishing as the runner-up in the 2018 U.S. Amateur Championship. He was one of four amateur golfers to make the cut after he was at 3-over through two rounds.

“Making (the cut) was just pure joy and happiness,” Bling said. “Not many can say in their first Masters that they were able to play all four days and walk down the back nine on Sunday.”

UCLA men’s golf assistant coach Andrew Larkin caddied for Bling at the Masters. Larkin, who has known Bling for four years, said the Masters experience highlighted Bling’s growth as a golfer.

“(Bling) has developed from someone with unbelievable natural ability to a pretty refined golfer,” Larkin said. “Since he’s come to college, he’s become an exceptional driver of the golf ball. His iron play has developed tremendously, with him being able to control the golf ball more consistently.”

Bling was seventh among all golfers in average driving distance. Larkin said putting will be Bling’s main area of focus moving forward following an average of 1.65 putts per green.

“(Bling’s) putting is probably the thing that needs to continue to grow,” Larkin said. “He definitely has a great stroke, but he needs to work on adapting to green speed.”

Bling said he cherished the opportunity to meet and compete with prominent golf figures at his first professional tournament.

“I played with Rickie Fowler on Monday in a practice round. … I’ve watched him a lot, and he’s one of my favorite players,” Bling said. “I got to meet Tiger (Woods), who’s been my idol ever since I was little. He wished me good luck (on Sunday) on the practice green before we started, so I thought that was really cool.”

Bling also talked briefly with former Bruin Patrick Cantlay, who finished tied for ninth at 10-under.

“It was just a hello and goodbye, since he was focused on his game and I was focused on mine,” Bling said. “But, I was really happy for him for where he placed.”

Although Bling had many takeaways from the tournament, one moment stood out to him – a hole-in-one at the seventh hole of the Masters Par 3 Contest on Wednesday.

“It was just pure shock … it went in and I just kind of blacked out for a moment,” Bling said. “It’s a huge deal to make a hole-in-one … it was just a really good time.”

It was not the first hole-in-one of Bling’s career, however. The sophomore sank his first collegiate ace at the Arizona Intercollegiate on January 29.

Coach Derek Freeman said he was proud of how Bling conducted himself on and off the course throughout the week.

“I couldn’t be happier for (Bling) … he deserves every bit of it,” Freeman said. “He’s handled himself with great respect and represents the university in an incredible way. I’m super excited about where he’s at and what he’s doing.”

Bling will return to UCLA in time for the Pac-12 Championships from April 22-24. He said that playing in the Masters has prepared him for the NCAA postseason.

“I was able to compete with all of the best players in the world,” Bling said. “Going back and playing with collegiate players just gives me a bunch of confidence knowing that I am one of the best.”

Late scoring rally during sixth inning brings softball series victory over Oregon

The Bruins’ biggest rally came in the sixth inning.

No. 1 UCLA softball (37-2, 11-1 Pac-12) put up a seven-run sixth inning on its way to an 8-1 win over Oregon (17-21, 2-10) to take two out of three in the series.

“We had to fight and earn everything we had,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “I like to see us in those tight situations to see what happens. I got to see who we are in what was – for the most part – a tight game, but I also got to see us do some things we know our players are capable of.”

The score was tied at one-all entering the bottom of the sixth frame.

Redshirt junior pitcher Rachel Garcia stepped up to the plate with runners on first and second and with no outs after junior utility Bubba Nickles and senior third baseman Taylor Pack both found some green with singles to left and center, respectively.

“I was telling (Pack) and coach before I walked out, ‘I’m looking outside and I’m taking everything inside until I get two strikes,'” Garcia said.

She got precisely what she wanted – two pitches and two strikes on the outside corner.

She didn’t swing.

When Garcia did swing, she gave the Bruins the lead, sending a missile to left field for a go-ahead three-run home run – her seventh of the season.

“Of course I take two outside and I was like, ‘All right,'” Garcia said. “Then I was expecting a change-up, but saw that inside pitch and I just got all of it.”

But the Bruins weren’t done yet.

Redshirt sophomore outfielder Aaliyah Jordan kept the rally going with a walk. A shot up the middle from senior catcher Paige Halstead put runners on first and second, and when freshman first baseman Colleen Sullivan got hit by a high-and-tight fastball, the bases were loaded for sophomore infielder Malia Quarles.

In her first at-bat of the game, Quarles gave UCLA some insurance with a towering grand slam that landed deep in the trees when it came out of orbit.

“I just knew I wanted to hit the ball hard and to the outfield because either way someone would score if they tagged up or if I got a base hit,” Quarles said. “I knew I wanted to swing as hard as I could and see what happens.”

In the circle, UCLA went with both Garcia and sophomore pitcher Holly Azevedo.

Azevedo both started and ended the game, pitching in the first three innings before returning for the final three outs. She struck out five and gave up just one hit in her time in the circle.

Garcia inherited runners on first and second when she came in in the top of the fourth inning, but the Bruins were able to get out of the inning after a strikeout and double play. Garcia picked up her 17th win of the season in her three innings of work, striking out four and allowing one unearned run and three hits.

Oregon scored its one run in the fifth inning. The Ducks opened the frame by putting runners on first and second before the Bruins could record an out. Two outs later, a walk loaded the bases and a run came across after a fielder’s choice. UCLA got the ground ball it needed to get out of the inning with just the one run it gave up.

“Even though they were able to get that run on the board, our ability to get out of situations is big,” Inouye-Perez said. “It’s all about the process. The outcome is big, we want to win series, but we gained a lot this weekend and learned a lot about ourselves this weekend.”

High rainfall levels have distracted city officials from preventing future drought

Los Angeles isn’t holding its water.

In the past, the City of Angels has been known as the land of palm trees and clear skies, hardly a place where it rains for what feels like every day for a month. So when this rainfall season came around, people took note. The city received a total of 23.64 inches of rain in March – almost half a foot higher than the season normal of 18.31 inches.

But only about 8% of the 18 trillion gallons of water California received in February was absorbed into groundwater basins, when it could have been used by the city. Instead, 80% of the rain ran off sidewalks, flowed down streets and traveled down the concrete river into the ocean, where it became practically useless saltwater.

However, when over 4 million Angelenos turn on the tap, that water needs to come from somewhere. This creates a very simple problem: Los Angeles needs water, but it doesn’t have it.

And the city will continue to not have water until it pumps out expansive water capture legislation. Los Angeles needs wide-reaching projects that allow more rainwater to seep into the ground instead of running into the Pacific Ocean. California might temporarily be out of a drought, but without proactive steps from the city, there will be a lot of Angelenos with dry throats.

Instead of taking steps to capture water, Los Angeles has settled for a massive Band-Aid: importing it.

The majority comes from Northern California and the Colorado River through the State Water Project and the Colorado River Aqueduct. But the biggest issue with this practice is that it removes water from watersheds.

This leaves less water for people in Northern California and disrupts many natural cycles that rely on the water flows. For example, diverting water from a stream with fish will make the stream more susceptible to temperature change, and could heat the water to an uninhabitable level.

“There are ecological impacts on the places from which we take the water,” said Felicia Federico, executive director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA. “Maintaining adequate flows to sustain the fish populations and other biota becomes difficult.”

Importing water also makes Los Angeles overly dependent on rain and snow in Northern California. If there is a shortage in rainfall up north, Southern California will be out to dry.

Mark Gold, associate vice chancellor for Environment and Sustainability, said the main issue lies in Los Angeles’ love of impermeable surfaces such as concrete and asphalt. These are materials that water cannot seep through to enter the groundwater system.

“There has been a big transformation from a permeable Los Angeles to an impermeable paving-over of the Los Angeles Basin,” Gold said. “Flows in the Los Angeles River are way larger – we import water to irrigate because when it rains, so little is absorbed.”

The city has tried to address this with Measure W, passed in November. The initiative provides incentives for property owners to open up more areas, such as patios and driveways, for water infiltration and allocates money to landscape the city to prevent stormwater runoff.

The problem is, the city hasn’t done anything else.

It still needs to kick-start large projects, like unpaving the Los Angeles River to allow its flows to infiltrate and identifying residential areas saturated with pavement and lacking in water collection systems.

The city also has relaxed water usage regulations. While the state prohibits washing down sidewalks, neighborhoods like Westwood have people drive up regularly in the middle of the night and spray down the pavement. Drying up rebate funds from the Metropolitan Water District makes it clear why Californians are back to using as much water as they did before the drought.

“Los Angeles needs a two-pronged approach that reduces water usage and improves the insufficient current system,” Federico said.

This should involve continuing and expanding the lifestyle of conservation that many adopted during the most recent drought, as well as increasing the amount of rainwater that trickles into the Los Angeles Basin through the aforementioned programs.

Of course, passing regulations and authorizing new projects takes time – particularly in red-taped Los Angeles. But Angelenos aren’t forfeiting their long showers or green lawns, especially given the recent increased rainfall. Bureaucracy shouldn’t stand in the way of common sense and proactive measures to keep the water flowing in the pipes and not in the streets. Measure W is just a start, but its effectiveness depends on city officials’ willingness to act while we still have water to spare.

It is important to prepare for California’s climate becoming drier. The recent iteration of megadrought and heavy rainfall might merely be an indicator of a cycle to come.

If that’s the case, Los Angeles needs to get every drop of rainwater in the dirt and not go with the flow.

Letter from the editor: Daily Bruin stays unified while seeking to amend Communications Board’s policies

Dear Daily Bruin staff and members of the UCLA community,

I am a firm believer that journalists should be telling the news – not making it. And yet, here we are doing just that.

A considerable number of Daily Bruin staff members elected to strike upon learning that our publisher, the Associated Students UCLA Communications Board, decided to break with tradition and appoint to the position of 2019-2020 editor in chief a staffer who had not received the staff’s endorsement. The newsroom, in recent history, has had a culture of viewing the board’s final appointment as simply a rubber stamp on an internal endorsement process that staffers spend hours deliberating each Friday of the first week of spring quarter.

It is understandable why so many staffers felt obligated to take a stand when the norm was challenged. Many were outraged that a distant, dispassionate board of appointed people had the audacity to determine the next leader of this historic paper. A strike against publishing the paper seemed the only viable option to some.

I am relieved that this stand ultimately came to the resolution that The Bruin is better and stronger as a unified force. But this entire process has revealed to us that we have been working with a long broken system that only seemed reasonable to our predecessors because its results consistently favored them.

Many of us have come to understand the point that, in many professional organizations, the publisher selects the editor and the role the Communications Board plays is quite similar. Somewhere along our 100 years, the newsroom forgot this practice.

We’ve been working on fixing things, though.

Our staff is not divided on the issue of whether it should be the only one to choose an editor in chief by means of a process that many on the outside would find analogous to an Iowa caucus. We attempt every year to establish that our endorsement process is not a political one – but that doesn’t make us insusceptible to office politics.

The staff has collectively decided to rally behind the editor in chief candidate appointed by the Communications Board. Her qualifications and her work with The Bruin are indeed impressive. She is an editor in chief the entire staff can get behind.

But that does not discount the achievements of the two other candidates who applied for editor in chief. One almost single-handedly brought our newspaper into the modern age with her contributions to our social media platforms, while the other has helped shaped the way news coverage is done by the staff.

Journalism is the foundational unit of democracy. We know this to be true because many of our staff found this tenet compelling enough to strike against the Communications Board in the name of transparency. And it’s what is unifying us to reform the existing process to be more transparent. Our staff has spent tireless hours reading through and seeking amendments to the Communications Board’s policies and procedures so it can make decisions that more adequately support our interests.

We are lucky to operate such a long-standing, independent organization. The existence of a publishing board has provided us with countless opportunities that many student newspapers dream of – the ability to prioritize and fund our travel reporting projects and maintaining absolute independence from UCLA just to name a few. That’s not to say the board has always acted in our best interest, and indeed we feel an organizational obligation to hold it to the same standards that we do any other campus institution.

But the board has expressed support for the proposals we would like to see in next year’s editor in chief selection process. And in the months to follow, we intend to use it to ensure a better operating environment for our paper.

The Daily Bruin remains committed to the mission of reporting on the campus and community. There was never a question of whether certain members of the staff prioritized this aim more than others. The decision to strike or not is not one that should tear our paper apart – there are already plenty of external organizations that would love for nothing more than this conglomeration of students to splinter because we have held them accountable. But many of them need to be kept in check by our watchful eyes and ears, and we will continue to live out that journalistic tradition as long as we can.

Our struggle this past week was emotional and harrowing. But turning 100 comes with its growing pains – and we’re ready, as we always have been, to overcome them.

Sincerely,

Jacob Preal

Daily Bruin Editor in chief

Editorial: UCLA has lost integrity failing to hold officials involved in bribery accountable

Money buys you a lot of things at UCLA – lately even your integrity.

The college admissions scandal has refused to wash away from the news cycle. A sweeping federal indictment last month showed us how ultrarich parents and celebrities were able to pay up to half a million dollars to falsify their children’s athletics records and buy their way into public and private universities. The numerous follow-up stories displayed how UCLA and other institutions were pathetically lacking in oversight of their rogue athletics departments.

The latest wave has had the most damning revelation yet.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that wealthy parents were already getting their athletically subpar kids into UCLA, well before the college admissions scandal, by offering up to six figures in donations to UCLA Athletics. One couple pledged $100,000 to the university, and their daughter – who was too slow for the track and field team – managed to cross the bar because senior athletics officials pressured the coach into recruiting her.

The worst part, though, was that university officials knew and even did an investigation into this practice in 2014. Yet, administrators seemed to do nothing in response.

There’s no mincing words: This is straight-up bribery. And the fact that it was permitted and even allegedly encouraged by administrators makes it obvious UCLA is comically corrupt.

Here Chancellor Gene Block was claiming UCLA was the victim. Instead it’s the perpetrator.

Block himself had to have been knowledgeable about the internal investigation, which implicated officials as high up as Josh Rebholz, now the university’s senior associate athletic director for external relations.

Moreover, the corruption was extensive. According to the report, Rebholz told Michael Maynard, the then-track and field coach, that it was imperative he recruit the student in question because she was the daughter of major donors. This was on top of Grant Chen, the associate head tennis coach, telling UCLA’s director of administrative policies and compliance office that the student-athlete was a family friend – one whose parents received sample pledges from Chen. Maynard, who eventually left UCLA in 2017, even authored an email thanking the student’s parents for their “generous financial gift.”

But the worryingly long paper trail is just the tip of the corruption-berg. The 2014 report even found families of the tennis team’s walk-on athletes gave massive donations to the university – donations, its authors wrote, were likely expected by some to come at the time of the students’ admittance.

In other words, last month’s college admissions scandal was merely an egregious and unnecessarily illegal attempt to do what so many others were already. And given hard-hitters implicated in this report – Rebholz, Maynard and Chen – largely kept their jobs, it’s clear the bribery was institutionalized.

The implications are harrowing: UCLA didn’t change five years ago. It’s unlikely to change now. And the big talk from Block and UCLA Athletics officials about wanting to reform the process is probably hogwash.

This is coming from the nation’s top public university.

Of course, UCLA can argue the charges from the 2014 report have already been addressed through changes like staff training. But none of the implicated individuals engaged in bribery because there wasn’t training at the time to explain the rules to them. Instead, the report revealed how UCLA Athletics officials believed they were acting in the university’s best interest by soliciting donations – something administrators are still obsessed with.

UCLA filled its coffers alright. And it lost its integrity with it.