As championship season looms in the distance, yet another regular season meet lies ahead of the Bruins.
Fresh off top-five finishes from both the men and the women at the Jim Click Invitational, UCLA track and field will travel 41 miles east to Walnut for the Mt. Sac Relays.
Fifty-eight Bruins will compete across several events among a massive field. The event lasts from April 12 to 15, featuring high school, college and elite divisions.
Several Bruins will team up for relay events, hence the name of the meet. On the men’s side, the blue and gold will send four relay squads, consisting of two 4×100 teams and two 4×400 teams. Meanwhile, the women will enter one team in each event.
Freshman John Robinson will represent the Bruins in both men’s relay events. He said the preparation has been promising leading up to the meet.
“Practice has been really great,” Robinson said. “We’re trying to switch things around and see what works best for the team. We had a few hiccups in handoffs but it’s something that we’ve tried to perfect over time.”
Robinson will race alongside juniors Kaden Reynolds and Antonie Nortje and senior Cristian Moore in the 4×100 relay.
Next to freshman Shawn Toney, senior Samuel Herenton and fifth-year Chase Wells, Robinson also forms one of the two Bruin quartets in the collegiate 4×400.
This week’s contest marks yet another combination of Bruin runners in the same event in which they broke the school record earlier this season at the Texas Relays. The new school record of 2:59.25 ranks third in the nation this season and first in the Pac-12 conference.
While that record-breaking group won’t compete together at Mt. Sac, the Bruins can continue their relay dominance with another impressive showing by a fresh group.
On the women’s side, the 4×100 relay features redshirt sophomore Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck, sophomores Makenzy Pierre-Webster and Alyssa Conyers and freshman Naomi Johnson. The women have seen more continuity than the men’s side, having competed together in the same event at the Texas Relays – sans Ndjip-Nyemeck.
Conyers mentioned how bonded her relay team is heading into the meet.
“Our 4×100 is really close,” Conyers said. “And I think relationships really help with an event like that where it’s all about technique and getting the baton on time.”
Mt. Sac also poses a unique setting for the Bruins, who have traveled across the country for prior meets both for the indoor and outdoor seasons. But this time around, the Bruins are only driving distance away from the site of the meet.
Robinson said the proximity of the meet has its perks.
“I think this meet is beneficial to us because it’s so close,” Robinson said. “We don’t have to worry about being tired from travel.”
Conyers echoed that sentiment, referencing the difference between the Bruins’ travel plans and other schools’ obligations from far away.
“We don’t have to go to a hotel or travel anywhere far,” Conyers said. “So that’s definitely a strength because a lot of other big schools will have to travel hours on a flight.”
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