University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Multi-Event Athletes Kick Off Pac-12 Championships
May 2, 2013
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -
2013 Pac-12 Media Guide Heat Sheets 
| Championships Home Page
UCLA Track & Field begins their postseason as four multi-event athletes will compete in the first leg of the 2013 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships this weekend, May 4-5, at Cromwell Field and Katherine B. Loker Stadium.
Dominic Giovannoni, Marcus Nilsson and Tatum Souza will represent the Bruins in the multi-event conference championships for the third consecutive year, while Kimmie Conner will be making her second career appearance (first since 2011).
Action will kick off Saturday, May 4, at 12:00pm with the men's 100m race. Live stats for the 2013 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships can be found here. The Pac-12 Championships will resume the following weekend, May 11-12. For more information, please refer to the Championships Home Page link at the top of the page.
BUILDING UPON PAST SUCCESS
Last season, Nilsson led the way for the Bruins with a second place finish, posting a then-lifetime best 7,539 points that included two event victories (shot put and discus). Giovannoni took fifth overall (6,891 points) for the second straight year, highlighted by a top finish in the 100m hurdles (14.66).
Currently, the two men sit second and third, respectively, in the conference's decathlon standings. Giovannoni set his lifetime best score at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays (7,558 points), placing him seventh all-time in UCLA history. Still, though, both Bruins sit behind 2012 Pac-12 Decathlon Champion, Oregon's Dakotah Keys, in the current standings. They will need a huge weekend to have a shot at knocking off the defending champion.
Also in 2012, Tatum Souza improved upon her sixth place finish at the 2011 Pac-10 Championships, taking fifth overall (5,334 points). She will enter the weekend seeded second overall in the conference (5,587 points), just behind 2012 Pac-12 runner-up Keia Pinnick of Arizona State.
As a freshman, Kimmie Conner claimed eighth place (4,798 points) in the women's heptathlon at the 2011 championships.
OPENING WEEKEND IS KEY
In last year's inaugural Pac-12 Championships, the Bruins scored a combined 19 points (15 for the men, 4 for the women) in the multi-events section. As such, this weekend is extremely important, not only for the individual competitors, but also for the Bruins squads as they chase a conference championship.
In the second of back-to-back-to-back weeks, the Bruins will head across town to compete at Loker Stadium. Last weekend, the Bruin men and women swept host USC in their final dual meets of the season, as the men upset the Trojans, 85-78, and the Bruin women prevailed, 90-73.
OXY INVITE
As the Pac-12 Championships get underway, UCLA Track & Field will also send athletes to Saturday's Oxy Invite. Field events begin at 11:00 am with the men's shot put, and track events will get started at 2:20 pm with the men's 4x800m relay. For more information regarding the Oxy Invite, please click here.