All for One

COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin The UCLA women’s track 4X400 relay
team has determined the outcome of the past two meets. They hope to
turn the favor of victory toward the Bruins in the NCAA track
finals.

By Jeff Eisenberg Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]

A tense victory to win a conference championship.

Nagging injuries to several of her top personnel.

A reggae music festival which threatened to interrupt the
season’s final days of practice.

Jeannette Bolden has dealt with a lot of anxiety lately, and
quite frankly, she is sick and tired of it.

Nonetheless, at this week’s NCAA Championships in Baton
Rouge, La., the UCLA women’s track and field head coach may
have to keep a bottle of Maalox with her at all times.

With UCLA, South Carolina and USC, the nation’s top three
teams, among the favorites in the 4X400-meter relay, it would not
be surprising if the last event of the meet determines this
year’s outdoor national champion.

“I don’t even want to think about that,” said
Bolden. “If it comes down to the 4X400, my kids are going to
be ready, but I personally probably will not be. I’d be a
nervous wreck. They may end up consoling me.”

Tattered nerves aside, Bolden has every reason to be confident
in her relay team in light of its performance this season.

Less than two weeks ago, the team of senior Bunmi Ogunleye,
sophomore Adia McKinnon, sophomore Sheena Johnson and freshman
Monique Henderson clinched the Pac-10 title for the Bruins with a
resounding victory over USC.

“I didn’t feel any pressure because I didn’t
even know it was going to come down to the relay until
Sheena’s leg,” said Ogunleye of the conference
clinching triumph. “I just felt confident that we were going
to win.”

The same unflappable quartet will run for the Bruins on Saturday
evening, but it will not be favored to win the race.

That distinction belongs to South Carolina, a squad laden with
talented sprinters led by future Olympians Tiffany Ross and
Leshinda Demus. The Gamecock relay team ran a season best of
3:26.98, nearly five seconds faster than any other school has run
all season.

Nonetheless, the Bruins are confident that their best will be
good enough.

“Any given day, you can run your best time, and someone
else can have a bad day,” said Ogunleye who will run the
first leg of the race. “It is always nice to be in an
atmosphere where people are just as good as you, if not better. It
brings out the best in you.”

With a world class field and such high stakes, it would be easy
to become awestruck, but UCLA is intent on avoiding
distractions.

“We are going to hear about the other competition,”
said Henderson. “It is always going to be in the back of our
minds, but we do try to focus on ourselves as much as possible.
That is the way to win a race and win a championship.”

Running the anchor leg in the relay, Henderson will go head to
head with the best sprinters in the nation this week. Even so, it
is not her opponents, but the decisiveness of the last quarter of
the race that accounts for her slightly different approach.

“(The anchor leg) is a little bit more pressure because
it’s all over if you make a mistake,” said Henderson,
who is one of the favorites to win the 400-meter dash. “You
have three other women depending on you.”

That familiarity among teammates is one of the aspects which
will separate the elite teams from the rest of the field in
Louisiana.

Although the baton pass is not as important in the mile relay as
it would be in a shorter race, being comfortable with one another
can make all the difference.

“The relay is different than individual races,” said
Sheena Johnson who will also be competing in the 100-meter and
400-meter hurdles. “You get on the line knowing that other
people are counting on you.”

The Bruins have used many different combinations in the relay,
but Bolden believes the current foursome gives them the best chance
to win in Louisiana. Injuries to McKinnon and All-American sprinter
Ysanne Williams made it tough for the team to get into a rhythm
until late in the season.

Nevertheless, since McKinnon’s return in late April, the
Bruins have thrived. The foursome has defeated USC’s heralded
relay team twice, and appears primed for success at the NCAA
Championships.

“It is good to be able to participate again,” said
McKinnon who learned last week that she would be running in the
400-meters in addition to the relay. “I thought I would miss
the rest of the year, but thank God I didn’t. It has been a
blessing to come back and be a part of this team.”

Bolden is glad to have McKinnon back and believes that this
combination has what it takes to win UCLA its first outdoor title
since 1983, if the relay determines the national championship.

She’s just not sure that she could cope with the stress of
watching the race from the sidelines.