UCLA track and field distance medley relay team sets new school record

The UCLA men’s distance medley relay quartet was right on the bubble.

The NCAA Indoor Championship meet takes the top 12 distance medley relay teams from across the country, and heading into the Alex Wilson Invitational in Notre Dame, Indiana this weekend, the Bruins held the 12th spot.

But after dropping over nine seconds from their previous season-best, UCLA now has the eighth best time in the nation. While no position is truly safe until the qualifying cutoffs next weekend, it was still cause for celebration Saturday.

In the 97-year history of UCLA track and field, no four-man team had run under 9:30.00 in the 4000 meter race until seniors Ferdinand Edman, Nick Hartle, Austin O’Neil and sophomore Joe Herrera ran a 9:29.6, lowering the previous best set in 2010 by nearly 1.5 seconds.

“It feels really, really special,” Hartle said. “It’s a great accomplishment if you’re on top of any of the record books at a school as athletically prestigious as UCLA.”

Hartle, while contributing to the feat, also got to be a spectator for the first few minutes, watching Edman and Herrera take on their opening 1200-meter and 400-meter distances before he ran his 800-meter leg.

The senior noticed something rather strange about the rest of the field.

“When you’re watching the first couple legs in my position, you see these guys going and it doesn’t seem like they’re going that fast,” Hartle said. “But of course they’re clicking off some fast times. We were kind of in the middle of the pack the whole race.”

Normally being a part of the pack is a bad thing – teams want to be out in front – but the seven-team heat UCLA was in Saturday was the fastest distance medley relay pack of the year so far.

Less than five seconds separated first from sixth, and the Bruins ultimately finished fifth.

Running in such close quarters, as the runners were for the majority of the race, has its challenges.

“In my 400, in my leg, I did get boxed off a little bit,” Herrera said. “One person was right in front of me, one person was right beside me … it’s kind of hard to pass people on the curves.”

Regardless, Herrera still managed to build off of Edman’s start and set the table for a strong latter half of the race.

In the relay, the 400 is the fastest leg, but most of the competitive ground is made or lost in the longer portions, like O’Neil’s mile. Hartle attributed much of their success Saturday to O’Neil’s anchor, estimating that he dropped seven seconds or so from their last relay together at the Razorback Invitational.

“I got the baton in sixth and we were probably three seconds off the lead, I want to say,” O’Neil said. “The five-man group ahead of us didn’t have to go out as hard as we did, (I) tried to catch them.”

Not only did he catch up to the leaders, but he managed to pass one runner, as well, which – in light of the results – can’t be taken for granted.

Should teams outside the top 12 move up after the conference indoor championships around the nation, the runner O’Neil beat could potentially mean the difference between UCLA having the 12th or 13th fastest time – making or not making nationals.

No longer on the edge of the bubble, though, the three seniors and sophomore get to have a more comfortable fly home with freshman teammate Arturo Sotomayor. The underclassman set a new personal best in the mile, dropping two seconds off his time moments after watching the relay team make history.

“It was motivating. It got me motivated to run a pretty solid time, I have to say,” Sotomayor said. “I was a little nervous before the race – still freshman season, freshman year – it was crazy just watching those guys go out there and run their heart out.”