By J.P. Hoornstra
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
From the start of today’s first race in Champaign, Ill.,
the women’s track and field squad will begin a quest for
school history. With a national indoor title in 2002, it will
become the first track squad in school history ““ men’s
or women’s ““ to post three consecutive NCAA titles.
Head coach Jeanette Bolden, however, views the two-day,
four-team tournament from a more humble perspective.
“We’re not a big indoor school,” she said.
“This is a way to get the jitters out at the first scoring
meet.”
Whether they are jittery this weekend or not, the Bruin women
should contend again for the national title. Senior pole vaulter
Tracy O’Hara is the collegiate outdoor record holder in the
event (14-7.25) and a three-time Pac-10 champion. Another vaulter,
senior Heather Sickler, ranks third in school history with a vault
of 13-3.50, set last spring.
On the track, senior Ysanne Williams was an All-American at last
year’s indoor championships in the 4 x 400-meter relay; she
also competes in the middle distance and 400-meter hurdles. Two
sophomores, 2001 Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year Sheena Johnson and
Adia McKinnon, another indoor All-American, round out the top of
the running corps.
One focal point this weekend will be sprinter Monique Henderson,
a true freshman from Morse High in San Diego, who will be competing
in her first NCAA event. Track & Field News named her the 2000
High School Athlete of the Year; the Bruin recruiting class was
ranked number two overall.
“We’ve won indoors the last two years,” said
Bolden, herself a five-time All-American at UCLA from 1981-83 and a
gold medallist in the 1984 Olympics, “but we normally come on
real strong in the latter part of February and March. I’m
just looking for us to get used to traveling”¦ and coming out
of there injury-free.”