Competing outdoors for first time since earning World U-20 4x400 gold medal in 2018, Anderson produces personal-best efforts of 23.32 in 200 and 51.84 in 400 to lead UCLA women at Drake Stadium; Alyssa Wilson and Jacob Wilson dominate throws for Bruins, with Cal State Fullerton men winning team showdown

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor/Chuck Utash photos

The last time Shae Anderson competed in an outdoor track race before Saturday, she was in a different country, surrounded by American teammates and still representing another university.

It didn’t take long for Anderson to make a big impact in her long-awaited outdoor opener for UCLA, achieving personal-best performances to sweep the 200 and 400 meters at the Bob Larsen Track Meet at Drake Stadium.

Nearly 1,000 days after helping the United States win the World U-20 gold medal in the 4x400 relay in 2018 in Tampere, Finland, the former Oregon standout was wearing a different shade of blue for the host Bruins, but her speed still carried her to gold, clocking 51.84 seconds in the 400, followed by 23.32 in the 200.

RESULTS | MEN'S PHOTOS | WOMEN'S PHOTOS

“It felt so good to finally be outdoors again,” said Anderson, who competed in only three indoor races, including the 4x400 relay March 13 at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

“My training has been going great, so I knew I was going to go sub-52 for sure.”

Anderson ran 51.99 as a senior at Norco High at the 2017 Mt. SAC Relays at El Camino College in Torrance, Calif.

She had run 16 outdoor 400 races since then, along with seven more indoors competing for Oregon and UCLA.

Anderson clocked 52.07 indoors last year in Albuquerque and seemed primed to achieve another sub-52 effort at the Division 1 Indoor Championships at the same venue in New Mexico, before the meet was canceled as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Anderson split 51.01 on the anchor of the Bruins’ 10th-place 4x400 finish (3:35.23) two weeks earlier at the NCAA indoor final at Randal Tyson Track Center, demonstrating she was capable of a breakthrough performance Saturday.

Freshman Kate Jendrezak was second for UCLA in 54.72.

Anderson, who had run 23.66 in the 200 in 2018 while competing for Oregon in Tucson, Ariz., returned to the track an hour later to lead a Bruins’ sweep of top three spots, along with Maddy Doane (23.88) and Chinyere Okoro (24.27).

Those performances helped UCLA edge Cal State Fullerton by a 199-192 margin in the women’s team battle. The Titans triumphed in the men’s competition with 207 points and Long Beach State was runner-up with 139.

Alyssa Wilson followed her sweep of the discus throw, hammer throw and shot put Wednesday at the Jim Bush Legends Invitational by winning all three competitions for the Bruins again Saturday.

The UCLA All-American had a strong series in the hammer throw, with five throws over 63 meters, including a third-round effort of 218-2 (66.50m). She followed with a 52-6 (16.00m) effort in the second round of the shot put, then overcame two fouls to open the discus competition, before producing a third-round throw of 170-7 (52.00m) to complete the trifecta and contribute 30 points for the Bruins.

UCLA’s Jacob Wilson, Long Beach State’s Jason Smith and Cal State Fullerton’s Charles Kelly also won multiple individual events.

Wilson won the hammer throw and shot put, holding off Alec Jones of Long Beach State in the first event by a 194-4 (59.25m) to 191-5 (58.36m) margin. Wilson prevailed in the shot put with a second-round mark of 60-6.50 (18.45m), with Jones’ fourth-round effort of 182 feet (55.49m) was enough to prevail in the discus.

Smith edged UCLA’s Cristian Moore by a 21.54 to 21.58 margin in the 200 meters, in addition to capturing the long jump with a third-round leap of 25-1.75 (7.66m).

Kelly swept both the 110 hurdles and 400 hurdles, clocking 14.47 and 53.07, respectively.

The Titans also received another victory from Juwan Seals in the men’s triple jump with a fifth-round effort of 48-3.25 (14.71m), along with winning both relays, running 41.50 in the 4x100 and 3:16.87 in the 4x400.

Along with Alyssa Wilson taking three events and Anderson doubling up, UCLA also had Catherine Leger triumph in the 100-meter dash in 11.66, Ilaria Casarotto emerge victorious in the javelin competition with a second-round throw of 164-5 (50.11m), Mia Cervantes clearing 12-3.50 (3.75m) in the pole vault, along with earning the 4x400 win in 3:54.05.

Cal State Fullerton received victories from Karyn Best in the 100 hurdles (14.71) and Maya Occiano running 1:02.01 in the 400 hurdles, along with sweeping all three jumping events.

Naiah Boardingham achieved a third-round leap of 19-10.25 (6.05m) in the long jump, Ty Wallace produced her only fair jump of 38-11.50 (11.87m) in the third round of the triple jump and Iesha Hamm cleared 5-9.75 (1.77m) in the high jump.

UCLA added men’s victories from Ismail Turner in the 400 (46.83) and Tate Curran with a 16-8.75 (5.10m) clearance in the pole vault. Curran snapped a pole attempting his next height and didn’t continue the competition.

Long Beach State took the top two spots in the men’s 100, with Kent Harris clocking 10.77 and Anthony Palumbo running 10.86, and PJ Tshiaba cleared 7-0.50 (2.15m) to secure victory in the high jump for the 49ers.