Track and field beats USC men, gives strong performance
Director of track and field Mike Maynard celebrates with members of the UCLA men’s track and field team following their win over USC.
(Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin)
By Alexander Hyun
May 5, 2014 1:30 a.m.
The UCLA track and field team hosted its annual meet against the USC Trojans Sunday in what was shaping to be an emotional competition.
Before Sunday, the USC men’s team led UCLA 42-38 while the UCLA women’s team led USC 22-8.
However, the UCLA men’s team came through this year with an 89-74 victory over USC. The women did not fare as well as the men, losing 95-68, but still had promising performances.
Senior pole vaulter Mike Woepse led the way for the team on the men’s pole vault by recording a personal best and the meet’s best score of 18-5.25 feet or 5.62 meters.
The men’s and women’s pole vault athletes swept both competitions against USC, earning big points for the Bruins.
“We knew we didn’t have much competition so the main goal was to jump well and make up some ground with marks,” said pole vault coach Anthony Curran. “We just have to execute good technique heading down the stretch because when we stress about who we’re competing against, then that’s when we start to fall apart.”
The men’s shot put and discus throwers didn’t face any competition from USC, but had big marks, particularly from redshirt sophomore thrower Nicholas Scarvelis who recorded a new personal best with a score of 64-4.50 feet or 19.62 meters in the men’s shot put event.
“It feels great to perform well and to beat USC,” Scarvelis said. “None of the guys on the team have lost to USC, so it’s nice to continue that streak against them and it was also nice to see some top performances today as well.”
Other significant performances from the men’s team include those of redshirt junior Nohe Lema’s victory in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, sophomore Nick Hartle’s victory in the men’s 800-meter and senior jumper Michael Perry’s victory in the long jump, which was clinched on his last jump.
Some strong performers from the women’s team came from freshman javelin thrower Zaybree Haury, junior sprinter and long jumper Kylie Price, senior high jumper Alexis Walker, and junior pole vaulter Elena Clarke.
All of the aforementioned athletes achieved a first-place finish.
Haury stood out as she continued her strong freshman season by blowing out the javelin throw competition with a score of 159-1 feet or 48.50 meters. The next closest score was 124-03 or 37.88 meters by teammate redshirt senior javelin thrower Victoria Breidenthal.
“Our team has fought hard all season long, so for the team and for the seniors that are here, beating USC was great,” said Woepse.
