The Bruins showed out at their indoor season opener despite an unpredictable start to the year.

UCLA track and field traveled to Spokane, Washington, to compete in the Spokane Sports Showcase on Friday against 10 schools, most notable of which was crosstown rival USC. The meet – where the Bruins recorded 19 podium finishes and notched six event titles marked the team’s first under the helm of Olympic champion Joanna Hayes.

“We’ve had the ups and downs that we’ve been going through with travel and evacuations,” Hayes said. “The team really came together well and did their best to represent for the school and for the city.”

Junior Michael Pinckney, freshman Valentina Fakrogha, graduate student Asha Fletcher and freshmen Karson Gordon earned first-place finishes in the men’s weight throw, women’s high jump, women’s triple jump and men’s triple jump, respectively.

Fletcher’s jump of 12.90 meters placed her No. 7 in this year’s NCAA Division I rankings, while Gordon’s 15.82 jump has him at No. 5.

“We have some really good field athletes that are going to win,” Hayes said.

Graduate students Ka’Leila Abrille and Katerina Adamiec also notched a two-three finish in the women’s pole vault, jumping 4.16 and 4.01 meters, respectively.

“Me and Katerina were, I won’t say satisfied, because obviously we would have liked to do better and we want more for our next meets in the season,” Abrille said, “But I think we’re both pretty happy with how things went.”

On the track, senior Elijah Major ran personal bests of 6.74 in the 60-meter dash and 21.46 in the 200 meter, placing seventh in both events. Major said he was proud of his performance since suffering a grade-two hamstring pull in February.

“The first one (the 60-meter dash) was almost a mental block because last year, my last time I did run the 60, I did get injured afterwards,” Major said. “I made it to finals, and ran faster than I ever have before. … For the 60, definitely (want to) get into that 6.6 range and for the 200 I do want to touch that 20.9.

In addition to Major’s new personal records in the men’s 60-meter dash, sophomore Taylor Snaer also ran a new personal best of 7.37 on the women’s side, putting her at No. 3 all time in the UCLA record books for the event.

In the men’s 1000-meter run, graduate student Bennett Boot-Genthe and sophomore Tristan Amell finished one second apart – with Boot-Genthe taking first place and Amell second – while graduate student Rose Pittman took home the women’s 600-meter dash with a time of 1:32.60.

With Pittman as the third leg, junior Naomi Johnson, senior Aly Conyers and freshman Kayla McBride represented the Bruins in the women’s 4×400-meter relay and posted a 3:38.67 – 0.31 seconds behind first-place Montana State.

UCLA will travel to Indianapolis on Jan. 24 for the Crossroads of America Invitational.

“We’re really going to have a great season,” Hayes said. “Sky’s the limit.”