It took all of one afternoon for the UCLA women’s track
and field team to dispel the idea that it might finally be
vulnerable this season.
Two weeks ago, in front of a capacity crowd at USC’s
Katherine B. Loker Stadium, the Bruins outgunned their crosstown
rivals and re-established themselves as one of the nation’s
elite teams. Now, as UCLA prepares for this weekend’s Pac-10
Championships at Drake Stadium, the team is hoping to use that
performance as a stepping stone to its ninth consecutive conference
crown.
“The way we competed as a team at USC showed how we are
coming together as a group,” senior thrower Jessica Cosby
said. “Everyone is contributing ““ the sprints, the
throws and the jumps. We’re starting to peak at the right
time.”
It was supposed to be somewhat of a rebuilding season for UCLA
after the second-ranked Bruins lost a significant portion of last
year’s national championship team to injury or graduation.
But buoyed by the contributions of seniors Cosby, Candice Baucham
and Monique Henderson, UCLA hasn’t slipped the way some
expected.
“A lot of people had counted us out,” Henderson
said. “But after winning at USC, we proved we can accomplish
anything this year. Hopefully that will keep us motivated through
Pac-10s and NCAAs.”
The conference championships have been more of a coronation than
a competition recently for UCLA, who has won all but three of the
Pac-10 titles since the conference adopted women’s track in
1987. But the blueprint the Bruins used to run away with last
year’s Pac-10 title won’t resemble the one UCLA coach
Jeanette Bolden draws up for this weekend.
The Bruin sprinters and hurdlers accounted for over half of the
team’s 174.5 points last season in Arizona, capturing six of
the seven sprinting events. Only Henderson, who will run in the 200
and 400 meters as well as on both relay squads, is favored to win
an individual title this season.
Instead UCLA will have to rely on its field athletes to pick up
the slack.
And they’re certainly capable. Cosby boasts the
conference’s leading mark in the shot put and the hammer
throw. Baucham should contend in the long jump and the triple jump.
Chelsea Johnson is the national leader in the pole vault. And
Kamaiya Warren and Lara Saye also hope to score big points in the
discus and shot put.
But UCLA knows it can’t afford to be overconfident. The
last time the Bruins did not win the Pac-10 title was 1996, the
last year the team hosted the conference championships.
“We’re usually more focused when we leave our
surroundings,” Bolden said. “But we’ve done a
good job making sure everyone understands how important this meet
is.”
“We have a streak going,” added Cosby, “and we
don’t want something like that to be broken.”