As her sixth and final throw in the discus competition skidded
to a halt in the middle of the soggy infield at Drake Stadium,
Chaniqua Ross’ spirits fell like the raindrops that spattered
at her feet.
With the postseason just weeks away, Ross, the defending NCAA
champion in the discus, has not recaptured her title-winning form
of a year ago.
Although her throw of 182 feet, 10.5 inches was enough to take
first place by a wide margin over teammate Lara Saye at
Saturday’s UCLA Invitational, the senior believes she is
capable of far more.
“I have yet to perform in a meet the way I do in practice,
and that’s frustrating,” Ross said. “Hopefully
with the conference championships coming up, I’ll start to
show what I am all about.”
Ross established a personal best of 188-6 in Salinas last May,
and consistently surpassed the 180-foot mark in last season. But
this year, her performance has been admittedly erratic.
Her season-best 183-7 is just fifth on the national charts, and
a disappointing 174-1 against USC last weekend might have been a
sign of vulnerability.
Ross’ struggles have only been magnified by the inability
of sophomores Briona Reynolds and Jessica Cosby to pick up the
slack in the other throwing events. Neither Cosby, the defending
NCAA champion in the shot put, nor Reynolds, an All-American last
year in the discus, have duplicated their fabulous freshman
campaigns ““ a fact that has left UCLA throws coach Art
Venegas at a loss.
“I expect them to do better,” Venegas said of his
stable of throwers. “I have been anticipating a change for a
month and a half, but that’s something that’s up to
each individual. They’ve each just got to find
themselves.”
Venegas has encouraged all three to be more aggressive, and the
results were somewhat encouraging Saturday.
Both Cosby and Reynolds showed signs of progress when each came
within a foot of her season best in the shot put (54-1.6, second
place) and discus (166-8.6, third place), respectively. But while
this performance was encouraging, Venegas knows the sophomore duo
is capable of more.
“Their training is in line with what they need to do, but
their performance in meets has been sub-par,” he said.
“They’ve got to decide when it’s time to get
their acts in gear.”
With the Pac-10 Championships less than two weeks away, UCLA
will need its trio of throwers to perform to its capabilities to
secure a seventh-straight conference title. Although Ross was not
satisfied with her throwing Saturday, she is confident that she and
her teammates will maximize their potential in the coming weeks
when the conditions are more favorable.
“Sometimes rainy days are just a little harder to get it
going,” Ross said. “I just need to be confident coming
into a meet and forget about what everyone else is doing. If
I’m consistent in practice, it will eventually carry over to
competition.”
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the meet came courtesy of
sophomore T’Carra Penick, who qualified for the NCAA
Regionals with a personal-best of 54.94 seconds in the
400-meters.
Penick, who bested her previous record by more than a
half-second, sank to her knees in exhaustion and jubilation when
her time flashed on the scoreboard after the race.
“This was do or die,” Penick said. “I had one
more meet to go before Pac-10s, and I wanted to qualify today. It
was a relief.”