LOS ANGELES – The 2017 UCLA outdoor track and field postseason will kick off this weekend, with UCLA sending three athletes to compete in the heptathlon at the Pac-12 Championships. The two-day competition will begin Saturday, May 6. The meet will be held at the Whyte Track and Field Center in Corvallis, Ore., on the campus of Oregon State University.

On top of the combined events, UCLA will send mainly a distance crew on Saturday, May 6, to Occidental College for the Oxy Invitational. The Invitational will begin at 11 AM PST with the men's and women's shot put, followed by the rest of the field events. 

The running events will start at 2:30 PM with the women's 100-meter hurdles. Highlighting the events are several world and Olympic medalists, including Greg Rutherford, Shavez Hart, and Brenda Martinez, competing in the men's 100m, 200m, and women's 800m, respectively. The meet culminates with the men's and women's 10,000m at 11:15 PM.

The three women representing UCLA this weekend in Corvallis will be senior Monique Van, junior Kendall Gustafson, and sophomore Christina Chenault.

Van comes into the PAC-12 Championships with several lifetime bests achieved this season. The Spring Valley native currently holds a personal best of 26.37 in the 200-meters and posted a time of 2:19.53 in the 800-meters this season. She also took sixth the heptathlon competition at the California Invitational with a lifetime-best total of 5,096 points. 

Gustafson has had a very solid year for the Bruins thus far. The Los Angeles native is coming off a strong performance against USC last weekend where she cleared 5-8 to take second place in the high jump and also posted a 127-9 mark in the javelin to finish third in the event. She also launched a lifetime best of 44-2 in the shot put this season at the UCLA Legends Invite. This weekend will be her first multi of the year as she holds a personal best score of 5,442 in the heptathlon.

Chenault, the sophomore from Walnut Creek, is also coming off a stellar outdoor regular season in a variety of events. Specifically, she posted a lifetime-bests in the 100-meter hurdles with a time 15.11 at the Legends Invite and in the long jump against USC last weekend with a leap of 18-10.75. Chenault won the heptathlon competition at the Cal Invite Multis with a personal best total of 5,438 points, a mark good for 19th in the country. 

Following the combined events on Saturday, the rest of the UCLA squad will be competing at the Pac-12 Championships in Eugene, Ore., from May 13-14.