Jan. 24, 2013

The UCLA men's and women's track and field teams will begin the 2013 indoor season on Friday when they travel to Seattle to compete in UW Invitational meet at Dempsey Indoor. The men's track heads into the indoor season as the #19-ranked team in the country, while the women's track team will start the season as the #42-ranked team in the nation.

"The Men's and Women's teams are excited and ready to open their indoor season this weekend," said UCLA Director of Track & Field, Mike Maynard. "We have had an excellent fall and pre-season training thus far. On Saturday, we had our winter session time trials and it was the best practice that I have witnessed in my four years at UCLA."

The men's and women's sides will be looking to build off of last season's success. Heptathlete Marcus Nilsson, as well as throwers Alec Faldermeyer and Ida Storm, were all participants in the 2012 NCAA Indoor Championships and are looking to build upon last season's performances and come out strong as the indoor season unfolds.

"Our expectations for Seattle are simply to kick off the season with performances indicative of the talent and preparation of our student athletes," added Maynard. "I always tell the team that it is 'not where you start, but where you finish'. However, we would certainly like to start off ahead of previous years to show the progress that we have made."

The UW Invitational is a two-day event that will include multi-event competition beginning tomorrow with running events start at 1 pm, while field events begin at 1:45 pm. On Saturday, the action returns at 8 am with the field events start followed by the running events start at 8:40 am.