The Bruins have a chance to break the stranglehold on one of the toughest Pac-12 crowns to win.
UCLA track and field has broken multiple personal and school records this season, and both the men’s and women’s teams have a shot at a Pac-12 title in May.
Senior sprinter/jumper Harrison Schrage said the men’s team has one major goal this year – to end Oregon’s 13-year reign as conference champions.
“This year it looks we are in great position to come threaten that crown,” Schrage said.
The Ducks have claimed the men’s title every year since 2007, and last year they posted the fifth-highest score in meet history.
UCLA was not far behind though. The Bruins ended with 140 points, a 102-point increase from the 2018 Pac-12 championship and also jumped seven teams to finish as runners-up.
Sophomore sprinter Kenroy Higgins II, who won the 60-meter at the Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge, said the Bruins should be looking at reaching even higher goals.
“Pac-12 shouldn’t even be a question whether we win it or not,” Higgins said. “So our potential is really what we can do on the national stage, especially since a lot of our runners haven’t even ran yet.”
The women’s team has a tougher starting situation than the men’s, as the former finished in eighth place at the 2019 Pac-12 championship, 99 points behind champion USC.
UCLA already has a conference champion in its chase for the women’s title. Junior thrower Alyssa Wilson won the Pac-12 Women’s Athlete of the Meet in 2019 with a win in women’s discus and runner-up finishes in women’s hammer throw and shot put.
In 2020, Wilson has won four out of her first five events to kick off the season. She said the Bruins have the potential to do well at the Pac-12 championship and possibly beyond.
“I know a lot of the freshmen sprinters stepped up their game and I was proud of them for that,” Wilson said. “So overall I think we have a good shot at maybe placing top 10 nationally at NCAAs as a team, so it should be exciting to see how many of us will qualify for that.”
UCLA also has two transfers helping push the Bruins further up the rankings. Junior sprinter Shae Anderson was a three-time NCAA All-American at Oregon in 2018 and has already broken the UCLA indoor record for the 400-meter with a time of 53.46 on her way to her third event victory of the year.
Junior jumper/multievent competitor Isa Videler set four personal records on her way to a second-place finish in the pentathlon in New York. Her 3,896 points in the event put her at No. 5 in the UCLA indoor top 10.
Videler said the Bruins’ potential could lead to a good showing come championship time.
“We have a pretty young team still,” Videler said. “There’s a lot of freshmen and sophomores in pretty much all the events, so we can learn a lot from each other. As long as we keep accelerating as we’ve been doing, I think we’re going to have a great season.”
