Bruins to prepare for Triton Invitational at Olympic training facility

Coach John Frazier’s shot put teams have been on a tear this year.

His most senior throwers – redshirt senior Nicholas Scarvelis and redshirt junior Torie Owers – posted huge personal bests against Texas A&M last weekend to claim the first and third farthest throws in the nation this season for their respective genders. These throws also came after the entire men’s team qualified for the NCAA indoor championships.

Frazier’s teams will take a side trip to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, this Thursday to get some practice in at an “Elite Throws and Vaults Only” meet. The event will act as a precursor to this weekend’s Triton Invitational at UC San Diego.

“The elite part of that meet sounds really good and there are some elite people,” Frazier said. “But the big meet is probably going to be at Triton.”

The OTC trip will be a glorified practice, Frazier said, but the meet has been a spectacle for good throws in the past and will be again this year.

“We’ll probably have about six to eight athletes who will all represent their countries at the Olympics on both the men’s and women’s side (in the discus),” said meet director and OTC coach Jeremy Fischer.

At the OTC, the Bruin throwers will get to not only watch and potentially meet world-famous shot putters like 2015 world championship gold medalist Joe Kovacs and 2012 Olympian Tia Brooks, they’ll get to compete against them as well.

“I know I’m not going to be able to beat Tia Brooks at 63 feet,” said redshirt freshman Ashlie Blake. “But I don’t get to that kind of setting and put myself down because I’m not throwing as far as them. I want to be able to go out and do my best against the best.”

There are two divisions of competition – an elite division and a sub-elite division. The elite section takes the top eight entries and pits them against each other, while others who qualify can compete in the sub-elite division.

But who qualifies? As an example, Fischer estimated that male discus throwers who have thrown 210 feet would probably be eligible for the elite section in that event.

“So we already know that none of our athletes are going to be in that section,” joked Frazier before practice, Scarvelis within earshot.

While the veteran thrower leads the men’s throws team with a throw of 192 feet, 10 inches, that’s still far from 210 feet. By Fischer’s estimates, Pennsylvania senior Sam Mattis would be the only collegiate athlete eligible to compete in the elite division at 221 feet, 3 inches.

Continuing with the discus example, Fischer also reasoned that athletes who have thrown over 180 feet would be eligible for the sub-elite section. Only 44 college men’s discus throwers, Scarvelis and freshman Dotun Ogundeji included, have thrown over 180 feet.

Throws on Thursday have the potential to be personal bests though because the conditions are prime.

“Between here and the San Diego Triton meet the winds are just great,” Fischer said. “You can get into the biomechanics of the flight and so forth, but just big throws come from both here at the training center and also at UC San Diego.”

None of the marks at OTC will count for the NCAA, but they are, however, counted for Olympic qualifying standards, which Scarvelis and Owers nearly have.

“I hope what they get out of Thursday’s meet is getting a better comprehension of competing against top-level athletes,” Frazier said. “Able to make the right adjustments, not trying too hard, focusing on the things we do in training.”

There’s also the sheer atmosphere of the OTC to explore – a six-acre field events area, strength and conditioning facilities, an athlete village, three Olympic-quality tracks and more.

Frazier says they’ll probably have time to tour the place, but most of his athletes have been there before, so it’s not as pressing on the agenda.

And who knows, with the Summer Olympics just months away, some of UCLA’s throwers may be headed back to Chula Vista in no time.