Rhonda Watkins was confronted with two options: compete in either the long jump or the high jump. But being the competitor that she is, the sophomore chose option number three: compete in both.
Over the weekend, Watkins won two events to lead the way for the UCLA women’s track team at the Pac-10 Track and Field Championships, where the No. 10 Bruins finished in third place with a total of 118.5 points. Arizona State won the team title with 158 points.
On Saturday, Watkins had the misfortune of having both of her top events scheduled at the same time. However, instead of choosing one event over the other, she decided she could compete in both events. The result: The sophomore became the first woman ever to earn league titles in both the long and high jumps.
“We knew way back in January that the events were at the same time,” jumps coach Mike Powell said. “The plan was to get two good marks in the long jump early and then focus on the high jump. We had to go back and forth and it was challenging as far as time was concerned, but sometimes I think it worked to her advantage because she doesn’t have time to think about it as much. She just went out there and jumped.”
With both events going on at the same time, Watkins had to hurry between pits after each attempt, but the rush did not faze the sophomore as she easily took the long jump with a leap of 21 feet 8.75 inches while battling to a first-place finish in the high jump, clearing the bar at 6-0.5.
The Bruins cleaned house in the horizontal jumps as Renee Williams, Danielle Watson and Georgea Richards finished in fourth, fifth and eighth place, respectively, in the long jump. UCLA duplicated this success in the triple jump the next day as Keneisha Creary, Williams and Nicole Duhart took the third, fourth and seventh places in that event. But even with that slew of points, Powell still wanted more from his group of jumpers.
“Going into the meet, my goal was for us to score 50 points (in all three jumping events), and we scored 46,” Powell said. “I knew coming in that to have a shot at the team title, we would need to score a lot in the jumps. I am proud of what we did, but I always have high hopes.”
Along with Watkins, fellow sophomore Nicole Leach also nearly pulled off double victories as she easily won the 400-meter hurdles in 55.95 seconds while falling just short in the open 400m, finishing in second at 51.97, losing out by less than one hundredth of a second. In addition to those individual events, Leach also anchored the team’s 4x400m relay team, running a split of just over 51 seconds.
The Bruins will now take two weeks off before heading up to Eugene, Ore., to take part in the West Region Championships.
NOTES: Sophomore All-American Allie Bohannon had a rough weekend as she failed to qualify for the 1500m finals and also took a spill during the finals of the 800m. Ciara Viehweg finished in eighth in the 3000m steeplechase, running a lifetime best of 10:35.70, which moves her into third place all-time at UCLA in that event. The 4x100m relay team finished in third, clocking a season-best time of 44.96.