The 2026 indoor season sprinted to a start.

UCLA track and field opened its campaign on Friday in Spokane, Washington, competing in the Spokane Sports Showcase.

The team, under the leadership of second-year track & field director and Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes, traveled up to the Pacific Northwest to take on a field that included USC and California. UCLA’s men’s and women’s squads both earned first place in the team competition. The Bruins also secured 11 event winners and 26 podium finishes.

“I wanted to see where they were,” Hayes said. “I wanted to see how the freshmen did in their first competition. I wanted to get an idea of how people manage themselves at meets, so I thought everyone did really well. It was overall successful.”

Junior Otto Laing won the men’s 60-meter hurdles – the fourth track event of the day – securing the second-best time in program history with a 7.81 mark. Junior Davis Davis-Lyric finished fourth in the same event with a time of 8.03.

Sophomore Celeste Polzonetti ran a personal best and the fifth-fastest Division I time this season in the women’s 60-meter hurdles, finishing second with a time of 8.14.

Freshman Arrin Sagiraju notched a time of 2:26.65 to record his first collegiate victory in the men’s 1000-meter run, and senior Kaho Cichon crossed the line first with a new personal best of 2:53.86 in the women’s 1000-meter run.

The Bruins also earned the first and second spots in the men’s 400-meter dash, with graduate student Chris Paige and senior Zaire Waring finishing at 48.43 and 48.48 seconds, respectively.

“We’re good practice buddies. During practice, we’re always competing and stuff,” Paige said. “I mean, he’ll probably give me back next week, but it’s great to have somebody to push me during practice and during the races.”

UCLA also took first and second place in the women’s 600-meter dash, with freshman Kaitlyn Arciaga achieving her first collegiate win with a time of 1:30.66 and junior Keilee Hall garnering a 1:31.15 mark.

Freshman Shaun McCoullum blazed to his first collegiate win in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 21.46. The women’s 4×400-meter relay won the event, notching a 3:36.19 mark, beating two USC squads that were seeded ahead of it.

But track and field is often much more than what happens in the lanes.

The Bruins took the entire podium in the women’s high jump – with sophomore Valentina Fakrogha and seniors Hannah Slover and Jordan Robinson jumping 1.75, 1.70 and 1.70 meters, respectively.

Graduate student Sydney Johnson jumped 6.34 meters to take home first place in the women’s long jump, while junior Camryn O’Bannon finished second in the men’s long jump with a 7.37-meter mark, and senior Michael Pinckney won the men’s weight throw with a 21.61-meter tally.

Graduate student Sophia Hartwell won the women’s triple jump, jumping 12.38 meters to beat 10 other competitors.

The Bruins will likely look to carry their early-season success to their next competition at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invite in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from January 23-24.

“We put in a lot of good hard work in the fall,” Hayes said. “A lot of them are right where they’re supposed to be.”