There is no easing into a season when you start at the top.

After both the men’s and women’s track and field teams claimed first-place finishes in their opening meet, the Bruins will return to competition facing a new challenge: racing with a target on their backs.

UCLA track and field is set to compete Friday and Saturday at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invite in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Other participating teams besides UCLA include Georgia, Arizona, San Diego State and New Mexico.

But UCLA’s limited access to indoor training facilities, especially as competition shifts indoors, makes easing into a season more difficult.

“[Being indoors] is definitely a little different,” said Chris Paige, a Princeton transfer and a former First Team All-Ivy League hurdler. ”I get kind of beat up on the indoor track. I go to the meet a day before, go on the bank, feel it out. [I] get … used to a different lean, a different block start, different running style going up and down the turns, adjusting as an athlete.”

Early season adjustments can be difficult and place greater importance on the coaching staff’s preparation for competition. The team rallies under second-year director of track and field and cross country Joanna Hayes.

As an athlete at UCLA, Hayes was a six-time All-American, seven-time Pac-10 champion and 1999 NCAA Champion in the 400-meter hurdles. Furthermore, she notched an Olympic gold in 2004 in the 100-meter hurdles, setting an Olympic record. Since, Hayes took up the coaching role, serving as a UCLA assistant coach from 2014-16 and USC assistant coach from 2017-24 before becoming the UCLA track and field director in 2024.

“I was an athlete. I know what it takes to be great.” said Joanna Hayes, the 2024 USATF Nike Coach of the Year. “I also know that track is not fun. It’s really hard and difficult and an individual sport. It can be mentally draining. Enjoying the process of the hard work is important. The feedback is great and people have loved it.”

The Bruins have embraced a mindset that values both growth and competitiveness early in the season. That balance has allowed UCLA to lean into the demands of the sport while maintaining high competitive expectations.

“It’s really telling to the coaching staff and the athletes and the program that coach Hayes runs that we show up and we’re not just there to put in a good practice or just figure things out,” said Tate Curran, pole vaulting coach and former UCLA pole vaulter. “Coach Hayes is a true inspiration to us all. It makes it really easy to work hard for somebody who works as hard as she does, and she cultivated a culture on the team that has brought all the coaches together.”

Curran will send three athletes from the women’s team to compete in Albuquerque. Graduate student Paige Sommers headlines the group as she looks to emerge on the national stage in her final collegiate season.

The top 16 pole vaulters are invited to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field championships in Fayetteville, North Carolina, come March.

Despite lofty outside expectations, the UCLA hype is not coming from within. A hands-off approach has seemed to build confidence amongst the Bruins as the season begins.

“I don’t have a lot of expectations,” Hayes said. “We see the numbers in practice. I watch the throws, the jumps and the runs. But once they step out into competition with adrenaline, with other people, with a competitive spirit, I want to see where they are.”