Whatever pressure the UCLA women’s track and field team
feels to defend its national title this weekend doesn’t
compare to the burden the Bruins have dealt with in the past.
UCLA ended a long run of futility at the NCAA Championships last
June, capturing its first national title in two decades by a single
point.
So when the second-ranked Bruins compete for another
championship this weekend in Sacramento, they are happy not to have
to contend with the ghosts of failures past.
“Winning last year definitely took some of the pressure
off,” senior Jessica Cosby said. “This year we’re
going in loose and confident. A repeat would be like icing on the
cake.”
It wasn’t always easy for UCLA to escape its checkered
history previous to this year.
The Bruins, third or better at the NCAA Championships nine times
in the past 12 years, had to endure questions about when they would
overcome their championship curse each season before finally
breaking through last year.
UCLA coach Jeanette Bolden reminded last year’s team about
the program’s title drought almost every day leading up to
the NCAA meet.
This year, though the Bruins expect to contend for a national
title once again, the stretch leading up to the meet has been much
more relaxed.
“We’re looking at it as if we have a great
opportunity,” Bolden said. “If we’re in the top
three we’re definitely going to make a run at the title
again.”
Though the Bruins are sending only nine athletes in 11 events to
Sacramento, most projections have them placing in the top four.
Top-ranked Texas and East Regional champion South Carolina have
a plethora of national-caliber sprinters and hurdlers. Third-ranked
Miami boasts the nation’s best shot putter.
UCLA believes its experience and balance will be enough to keep
the team in the running.
Seven of the nine Bruins who will compete in Sacramento this
week are returning All-Americans, including senior Monique
Henderson, who clinched UCLA’s title last season with the
fastest anchor leg in NCAA history in the 4×400-meter relay.
“Last year it was a wonderful feeling winning the
title,” Henderson said. “I’d love to have that
feeling again, and I feel like we have the team to do
it.”
Henderson and the other Bruins who led UCLA to the championship
last year will be trying to do it again this weekend.
Henderson, the nation’s top-ranked quarter-miler, will be
looking to capture her first national title in the 400 meters.
Chelsea Johnson, UCLA’s lone returning champion, is hoping
to defend her title in the pole vault.
Candice Baucham, one of the nation’s most versatile
horizontal jumpers, is expected to contend in both the long jump
and triple jump.
Cosby, ranked in the top four in both the shot put and the
hammer throw, is aiming for victories in both.
Even the Bruins acknowledge they have to be close to perfect to
contend this year, and that still may not be enough.
The team remains relaxed and confident as it prepares for the
final three days of competition in Sacramento.
“We may not have the quantity of athletes we’ve had
in past years,” Bolden said, “but we have a lot of the
quality. That’s what I’ve told my team all
week.”
Cosby added, “I feel like we have a good
chance.”