The way UCLA’s MacKenzie Hill sees it, qualifying for the
NCAA Championships this past weekend in Oregon was only the
beginning.
Now that the sophomore hurdler has earned a trip to Sacramento
next week, she is determined to prove that she belongs there.
Hill, a member of the U.S. Junior National team in high school,
hadn’t made much of an impact in her first two years at UCLA.
But Saturday, on the slick track at Oregon’s soggy Hayward
Field, Hill finally had her breakthrough performance, taking second
place in the 400-meter hurdles at the West Regionals in a
season-best 59.60 seconds.
“After I ran that race, I was thrilled the whole
weekend,” Hill said. “But I’m not satisfied with
just qualifying. My goal is to make it to the finals.”
Simply earning a bid to NCAAs is a big step forward for Hill,
who arrived at UCLA as one of the nation’s top prep hurdlers
but has struggled to make the transition to the collegiate
level.
Hill, who ran her lifetime-best time of 58.39 seconds at the
U.S. Junior Nationals in June 2003, didn’t come close to
matching that time until Saturday. She finished ninth at the Pac-10
Championships as a freshman, and left the track in tears after a
poor race at the West Regionals in Northridge last May.
“It was hard last year,” Hill said. “I had
never had a year that bad before. It was a lot harder than I
thought, coming out of high school.”
Part of the reason Hill didn’t make a smooth transition
was because she had only run the 400m hurdles a handful of times in
high school. The California state champion in the 300m hurdles as a
senior at Long Beach Wilson High School, Hill had to learn a brand
new pattern and often didn’t have the strength or endurance
to clear the final two hurdles.
“It was a matter of her getting used to the event,”
UCLA women’s track coach Jeanette Bolden said.
“She’s been training at a pretty high level this
year. It’s just a matter of her putting it all
together.”
Despite a series of knee problems that sidelined her early in
the outdoor season, Hill finally seems to be hitting her
stride.
Had she not stumbled over the final hurdle at the USC dual meet
last month, she likely would have taken first place. And her
season-best performance at regionals puts her in position to help
UCLA defend its national title at the NCAA Championships.
It won’t be easy for Hill to make it out of prelims
because the field will be much stronger in Sacramento than any she
has seen this year. Though Hill’s season-best time is the
third slowest of the 27 qualifiers in the 400m hurdles, she has
been running in the 57-second range in practice and hopes to
finally be able to put together that caliber of race on collegiate
track and field’s biggest stage.
Regardless of how she does at NCAAs, Hill is happy that she will
have the chance to contribute this year after not qualifying a year
ago, when the Bruins took home the national title.
“I was proud of my teammates, but I was pretty upset that
I wasn’t competing,” Hill said. “I told myself it
would not happen again.”