UCLA Sets the Tone in Impressive Season Opener

Saturday, March 4

Long Beach, Calif.

11:00 AM

UCLA

Long Beach State

Isaiah Holmes won the high jump with a personal best leap of 7-1.50. (Photo by Cody Crampton)

UCLA Sets the Tone in Impressive Season Opener

March 04, 2017 | Track & Field

LBSU Results

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The UCLA track and field team may have trained through the opener, but the marks in early March were impressive. The Bruins posted a school record breaking performance and also set numerous personal bests in the outdoor debut on Saturday in the dual meet against Long Beach State at the Jack Rose Track Stadium.

"We decided as a team to train through, and use our early meets to prepare us for the championships later in the season," Director of Track & Field Mike Maynard said. "Today we didn't compete our athletes heading to the NCAA Indoor Championship, we left some of the events completely empty, and competed most of our team in off events. This left the door open for Long Beach State. Nevertheless, we believe this was an excellent opening meet for us. We posted a number of solid NCAA qualifying performances that will hold for the season."

In one of the first field events of the outdoor season, senior Zaybree Haury launched a school record and huge personal best with a throw of 168-3 (51.28m). Haury entered the meet with a personal best of 160-0 and used the eight-foot lifetime best to take down the school record of 166-1 set by Tara Ross in 2009. In the men's javelin, AK Turner took top honors with a throw of 177-0.

The mark by Haury set the tone for the rest of the meet as several Bruins followed suit with personal bests. In the women's shot put, sophomore Ashlie Blake uncorked a lifetime best throw of 54-8.25 (16.67m) to win the event. She also won the discus with a throw of 154-11.

In the men's shot put, freshman Nate Esparza got his first collegiate meet under his belt with a win with a throw of 58-6 (17.83m). He was third in the discus at 163-6 and competed in his first ever hammer throw event.

The men's high jump proved to be one of the highlights of the meet as freshman Isaiah Holmes, and senior Sage Stone cleared personal bests on consecutive jumps. Both cleared 7-1.50 as Holmes eventually won the competition on misses at that height.

Junior Elleyse Garrett continued her strong 2017 in the pole vault as she cleared an outdoor personal-best at 13-5.25. Junior Riley Turner was second in the men's event at 15-3.

The Bruins showed some early season speed in the sprints. UCLA had no problem getting the baton around in the men's 4x100m relay in a time of 40.09. Sophomore Rai Benjamin, who ran the second leg on the relay, later won the 100m with a time of 10.40 (+3.1). UCLA later won the 4x100m at 3:12.28.

In the men's 200m freshman Logen Casavant clocked a winning time of 21.42 (+2.0). In the women's 200m sophomore Suzie Acolatse ran an impressive 23.89 (+2.9) to win the event.

In the hurdles, junior Misana Viltz won the 110m race in a time of 14.10 (+2.1) while sophomore Pattriana Perry won the 100m hurdles in a time of 14.05.

In the distance events, freshman Claire Markey won the 3,000m in her first collegiate track race in a time of 9:43.89. The Bruins went 1-2 in the 1,500m as redshirt freshman Jackie Garner won with a time of 4:38.32 while freshman Sarah Holloway closely followed at 4:38.82.

In the 800m the Bruins went 1-2 in the women's event as sophomore Maddi Moore clocked a 2:14.00 while junior Emily Fieberling was right behind at 2:14.55.