UCLA
Pac-12 Multi-Events Championships
Pair of Bruins Head to Stanford for Pac-12 Multis
May 04, 2018 | Track & Field
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA track & field team begins postseason play this weekend, as a pair of Bruins will head north to participate in the Combined Events portion of the 2018 Pac-12 Conference Track & Field Championships.
Senior Kendall Gustafson, in her third career Pac-12 Multis outing, and redshirt sophomore Christina Chenault, making her second consecutive Multis appearance, will be representing UCLA in the women's heptathlon , one of six league schools to have multiple student-athletes represented among the 15-competitor field.
The Combined Events will take place at Stanford University's Cobb Track & Angell Field, the first time the Cardinal have hosted the Pac-12 title meet since 2007. The heptathlon will consist of 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter dash, long jump, javelin throw, and 800-meter run events. ย
Gustafson is in the midst of a superlative senior season. The Los Angeles native is coming off a weekend in which she won the high jump with a mark of 1.76m (5-9.25), a half-inch off her PR, while finishing second in the javelin with a throw of 45.76m (150-1).
Earlier this year, Gustafson swept the competition in the heptathlon at the 40th annual Aztec Open hosted by San Diego State, winning all seven events en route to a career-best score of 5,691. That aggregate is the 12th-best mark in the NCAA this season nationwide and second-best in the Pac-12 behind Washington State's Alissa Brooks-Johnson (5,740, eighth nationally). She also took home first place in both indoor pentathlons in which she competed this year, including the top mark (4,084) at the 2018 MPSF Indoor Track & Field Championships.
A season ago, Gustafson finished fifth in the Pac-12 Multis with a score of 5,217, winning the high jump and shot put events.
Chenault finished one spot ahead of Gustafson in the 2017 Pac-12 Combined Events Championship, totaling a score of 5,269 via four top-five finishes. Though she has not completed a heptathlon this outdoor season, she and Gustafson finished 1-2 in the pentathlon at the Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge on Jan. 26-27. Chenault notched a total score of 3,872 in that competition, finished top-five in all five events, and won the 800m with a time of 2:17.76.
Following the Combined Events, the full Championships will take place at Stanford next weekend, May 12-13.
