What’s Bruin: Meb Keflezighi Completes Career with His 26th Marathon

Bruin Legends

UCLA running legend Meb Keflezighi ran his last race yesterday in the New York Marathon. Keflezighi finished 11th and ran the race in 2:15:29. It was Meb’s 26th marathon. He retires as the only person to have won the New York Marathon, the Boston Marathon and an Olympic medal. Congratulations, Meb!

It is with regret that we forgot to wish a Happy 65th Birthday to Bruin legend Bill Walton yesterday. Please accept our belated wishes, Big Red!

Women’s Soccer

The Bruins defeated Southern Cal in front of a record crowd of 11,925 fans.

While the Trojans struck first, it was the Bruins who would have the last laugh. Southern Cal took the lead in the 11th minute only for Kaiya McCullough to score her first career goal to equalize for UCLA. Almost ten minutes later, the Trojans regained the lead with another goal and that’s how it remained going into the half. It wasn’t until the 65th minute when Anika Rodriguez beat the Trojan goalkeeper to equalize once again.

The game went into overtime and it only took the Bruins 80 seconds to score the golden goal. This time it was freshman Ashley Sanchez who scored the winning goal. Sunny Dunphy sent in a ball to the box to Rodriguez who passed it to Sanchez who directed the ball to the back of the net. Before it even went in, the ball deflected off of a Trojan player. Not only does it feel great to defeat Southern Cal, but it feels even better knowing it was a deflection off one of their own players. UCLA now awaits seedings and pairings for the NCAA Tournament.

Women’s Volleyball

UCLA swept Arizona State 3-0 to take the back-to-back wins over the weekend.

The Bruins easily outmatched the Sun Devils taking all three sets. The scores were 25-16, 25-16, 25-21. The closest Arizona State had to winning a set was in the last one where they were five points away from a win.

The Bruin offense was on a roll. At least five players recorded at least seven kills. A game-high 12 kills came from stalwart senior Reily Buechler and also recorded seven digs to top off the night. Sophomore Madeleine Gates also had a night to remember as she registered 11 kills, just one behind Buechler, and five blocks. Freshmen Mac May followed with 10 kills, sophomore Kyra Rogers had eight, and freshmen Jenny Mosser registered seven kills.

As a result of Gates’ play, she was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week today. For the week, she had 13 blocks and 24 kills.

Women’s Basketball

UCLA easily defeats Vanguard in its exhibition game to start the 2017-2018 season.

It took a little bit of time for the Bruins to find their footing, they only led 4-2 at the first time-out, but once they found their groove there was no looking back. At the half, UCLA led 40-13 with freshmen Chantel Horvat and Michaela Onyenwere both recorded eight points apiece.

The second half didn’t prove any different. While some of the upper classmen scored the opening buckets, it was the freshmen who dominated the remainder of the quarter. Horvat, Onyenwere, Lindsey Corsaro, and Lauryn Miller combined to score 13 out of 15 points.

UCLA downed Vanguard 87-40 with the freshmen showing they can keep up with the upperclassmen. The Bruins open the regular season this Friday.

Men’s Water Polo

The Bruins took a mini break from conference play to compete in a non-conference game against San Jose State. UCLA easily defeated San Jose State with a 14-6 win.

Senior Matt Farmer led UCLA with a total of three goals, freshman Luke Henriksson had two, and so did Alex Roelse. When it came to goal, the Bruins split the two halves between Alex Wolf and Aleksandar Ruzic. Both Wolf and Ruzic gave made three saves while at the same time they allowed three goals.

The Bruins wrap up the regular season against Southern Cal this Saturday as they celebrate their seniors.

Men’s Soccer

After losing 3-2 to UC Berkeley yesterday, the UCLA Men’s Soccer team guaranteed it will have its first losing season in 65 years. They also will not play in the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

The Golden Bears took an early lead and it was not until the second half where they equalized thanks to Milan Iloski. Minutes later, Berkeley regained the lead. 20 minutes later, Anderson Asiedu helped the Bruins tie the game once again. One minute later, the Bears took the lead to go onto defeat the Bruins 3-2.

With the loss to UC Berkeley, UCLA has been eliminated from the postseason. This breaks a streak of 34 consecutive postseason appearances. While there is still one more game to play, questions have to be answered. Will this finally be the year Jorge Salcedo is replaced?

And that’s What’s Bruin this Monday afternoon.