It has taken four long years of setbacks and frustration, but
Mike Landers has finally put it all together.
On Saturday, the senior took center stage in front of a
boisterous home crowd at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Invitational as he won the pole vault competition in dominating
fashion. Landers finished with a huge jump of 17 feet, 8.50 inches
““ four inches better than his closest competitor.
“It’s taken an awful long time,” said Landers,
who nearly cleared 18 feet as well. “I’ve been here for
four years, and it has just seemed so long. I’m just really
happy that I have finally been able to break through.”
The California state high school champion in the pole vault in
2001 and the runner-up in 2002, Landers was highly recruited when
he entered Westwood four years ago. But up until this point he had
yet to fully reach his potential.
Now, with his big day at Drake Stadium, Landers is thrown into
the country’s elite class of vaulters. His mark puts him into
a tie for second in the nation, behind only Oregon phenom Tommy
Skipper, and is good enough for third in the nation in both the
professional and collegiate spheres.
“This is long overdue for Mike,” said pole vault
coach Anthony Curran. “He’s just been unfortunate. He
is always just a step under or the standards are too far back, but
today, he definitely had the confidence to compete like he was the
best guy out here.”
Landers was clearly the best vaulter in the competition, which
featured several professional athletes, including former Bruin Yoo
Kim, the Korean national record holder.
“Yoo has definitely jumped a lot higher than I ever
have,” said Landers, whose mark equaled the meet record held
by Kim and Scott Slover. “He is a great vaulter, but he just
had kind of a bad day and I just jumped the next highest
bar.”
Landers also moved into eighth place on UCLA’s all-time
pole vaulting list after steady improvement over the season led him
to Saturday’s breakthrough.
And while his performance my have seemed unlikely, Curran
believes Landers has always been capable of such an
accomplishment.
“He managed to do everything right today,” Curran
said. “The results are just like what we have been doing in
practice. He has jumped 17-4 and 17-6, so we all knew he was ready
to pull a 17-8 or 18 during a meet, and as you saw today he was
really close to making that.”
Of course, this leaves Landers with a nice problem. Now that he
has reached this plateau, more will expected of him after proving
what he can do.
“I’m just going to stay focused, and just try to
block out all of the variables,” Landers said. “I just
have to give it my best each time and see what happens.”
In any type of condition and no matter the level of competition,
Curran sees Saturday’s meet as an indicator of just what kind
of a gritty player Landers has become.
“Mike is one of those guys who can compete in any
condition,” Curran said.
“If it’s windy or rainy, I know that he is still
going to be there, and today was one of those days. The winds were
kind of screwy, but he still put things together, just like he has
been doing in practice. It’s great to see him finally getting
the results that he has been working for.”