UCLA women’s track athletes pass the NCAA preliminary stages
Senior pole vaulter Katy Viuf came in first for women’s pole vault at the NCAA preliminaries in Austin, Texas. Sophomore Tori Pena placed third in the event.
By Steven Breazeale
May 27, 2010 9:01 p.m.
The first day of competition at the NCAA Championship’s preliminary rounds went along smoothly and according to plan for the UCLA women’s track and field team.
Each member of the squad who was expected to move past the preliminary qualifying stages and into the quarters advanced.
Senior pole vaulter Katy Viuf and sophomore Tori Pena even bypassed the remaining qualifying stages and earned spots in the NCAA Championship in their first attempts.
The pair went on to post the first- and third-best clearances in the prelims. Both Viuf and Pena successfully cleared 13 feet, 9 1/4 inches, which automatically put them into the championships.
Among the group of Bruins who will still have to go through qualifying rounds but have moved past the prelims is freshman Turquoise Thompson.
In the 400 meter hurdles, Thompson finished in sixth place. Her time of 58.97 seconds posted on Thursday suggests that she could be saving her legs for when it counts.
Thompson routinely breaks the 58 second mark, but at this stage of the prelims she doesn’t have to worry about running her best race.
Junior Ashlea McLaughlin also moved on, and she posted strong times in the 400 meter dash. Her time of 53.58 seconds was good enough for a 14th-place finish.
McLaughlin is expected to compete for the 400 meter overall title and is among UCLA’s best shots at an event win.
Senior Krishna Curry also qualified for the next stage of competition by running a time of 2:07.95 in the 800 meter.
The Bruins will finish their preliminary qualifying rounds in multiple events today.
