Waves Send Elites to Cal/Nevada Championships
3/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track
Head Coach Robert Radnoti’s roster consists of sprinters Amanda Ajdari (Valencia, Calif./Hart HS) and Bridgette Walker (Oak Harbor, Wash./Oak Harbor HS), and distance runners Eric Magana (Whittier, Calif./La Serna HS), James Leckie (Lebanon, N.J./Hunterdon Central Regional HS), Conrad Wozniak (Irvine, Calif./Woodbridge HS), Brieanna Carroll (Pusan, South Korea/Pusan American HS) and Lauren Lodge (Hopkinton, Mass/Hopkinton HS).
All the Waves will be competing in their primary events and focused on setting new school records, but Carroll has the additional daunting task of running her first 10,000-meter run of the year.
“You’re racing against your mind and the clock in this race,” Radnoti said. “It’s 25 laps and you have to be mentally prepared to click off one at a time.”
The school’s 10K record of 38:05.07 belongs to Courtney Young, who set the mark at last year’s UCLA meet on April 11. Radnoti said Carroll and Young are good friends, and breaking her former teammate’s record is only part of Carroll’s motivation.
“Brie’s a fantastic long-distance runner and she’s going to continue to her competitive career with road races and marathons, and maybe two or three years from now she can earn an Olympic Trials cut,” he said.
Lodge, a freshman, is featured in the fast heat of the 1,500-meter run and is the second fastest newcomer in the field with a seed time of 4:40.83. This could also be her last 1,500 race of 2009 since she’ll be concentrating on the steeplechase beginning next week.
“With several
On the men’s side, Magana and Leckie will battle for the varsity record in the 800 that’s currently held by Magana (1:55.84); but Leckie, the freshman, has posted three of the team’s fastest times this season, including a personal record of 1:58.03.
Wozniak will be grinding it out in his second 5K of the season and Radnoti is hoping his sophomore harrier can break the 15-minute mark and school record of 14:58.02 originally set by assistant coach Chris Ogle last season.
Wozniak’s season best in the 5K stands at 15:22.46, which he posted at the Cal State Northridge Relays on March 14.
Sprinters Ajdari and Walker will be entered in the 100 and 400-meter dashes, respectively.
Ajdari is the school record holder in the 100 and 200, in addition to several relays, including the 4x100 and 4x400.
Event Schedule: Field events begin on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. with the women's javelin and at 11 a.m. Sunday with the women's discus. Running events begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday with the men's 110-meter hurdles and on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. with the 4x100-meter relay. A distance carnival will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday night with the steeplechase, 5K and 10K being contested.
Admission: Adults are $7. Non UCLA students and youths (age 3-16) are $5.
Live Stats: Live stats for the meet will be available here.
Cal/Nevada Meet Changes: Instead of having prelims for field events on Saturday and finals on Sunday, all field events will be final during one day of competition. Also, the steeplechase, 5K and 10K will all be finals on Saturday evening (there are no prelims and finals).
Competing Teams: CalTech, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge, Cal State San Marcos, Cal State Stanislaus, Chapman, Claremont-Mudd, Fresno State, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Masters, Nevada, Occidental, Pepperdine, Pomona Pitzer, Sacramento State, San Diego State, Soka, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UNLV, USC, U. of San Francisco, Westmont, Whittier.
Information from UCLABruins.com was used in this report.
