If the UCLA women’s track and field team wins its second
consecutive national championship next month, it won’t clinch
it on the anchor leg of the mile relay again this year. The Bruins,
who placed in the top four in both relays at the NCAAs last June,
will not attempt to qualify a team in either event at the West
Regionals this weekend. Instead, UCLA coach Jeanette Bolden will
instruct her sprinters to focus on their individual events,
allowing eight-time All-American Monique Henderson to run both the
200 and 400 meters at next month’s NCAA Championships. UCLA
has been a perennial power in the 4x400m relay over the years, but
this season Bolden simply doesn’t have the talent in her
sprint corps to compete at the national level. Even with Henderson
taking her customary spot on the anchor leg, the options for the
other three legs aren’t especially promising. MacKenzie Hill,
a heralded prep hurdler at Long Beach Wilson High School, has been
hampered by injuries at UCLA and hasn’t found her stride.
Freshmen Deshanta Harris, Dianna Gooden and Jolanda Diego
haven’t shown that they can run with the nation’s best
yet. And Dawn Harper, who has been slowed by leg injuries for the
past two years, may be too valuable in the 100m hurdles to risk
allowing her to run a relay. The lone redeeming factor for
UCLA’s absence from the relay is that it allows Henderson to
enter the 200 meters at the NCAAs for the first time in her career.
Henderson, the national leader in the 400m, has a season-best of
22.86 seconds in the 200m and is also ranked No. 4 in that event.
Diego and Hill will also focus on their individual events, the 100
meters and 400m hurdles respectively.
DOUBLE DIPPING: Three other Bruins besides
Henderson will also attempt to qualify for the NCAA Championships
in two events. Jessica Cosby, a former national champion in the
shot put, will compete in the shot and the hammer and Kamaiya
Warren will compete in the discus and the shot. Candice Baucham,
who finished second at the Pac-10 Championships in both the long
jump and the triple jump, will compete in both events.
“I’ve wanted to double since I started jumping well in
both events,” Baucham said. “Now I get the
chance.”
ODDS AND ENDS: UCLA is ranked third in the
latest Trackwire Top 25 Poll behind Texas and South Carolina. …
Allison Costello will run in the steeplechase and not the 5000m at
Regionals.