Junior Nicole Leach will have a chance to repeat as the NCAA champion in the 400 meter hurdles tonight.
She won her heat on Thursday and was the No. 2 qualifier in the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
“I feel fine,” said Leach. “I still have some parts of my race to work on and I need to execute my step pattern better. The first half of the race was good, but I had some problems in the second half. I just need to put it all together and I’ll be fine.”
Nickiesha Wilson of LSU won her heat race as well. Leach’s time in her race was 55.98 and she will start in lane six for the final race. Leach is also on the 4×100 relay team that finished eighth in qualifying. The relay team races on Saturday for the NCAA championship.
“I have so much adrenaline going through me right now,” Leach said. “I’m ready and I’ve known in practice I’m ready. I’m just going to use the crowd on Saturday and my adrenaline to come away with the win.”
Leach is looking beyond NCAAs and has the Olympic on her radar. The Olympic Trials for the track and field team are at the University of Oregon beginning on June 27.
“This is helping to build my confidence,” Leach said. “Once I get to Trials, I know it will be a whole new group of people to compete against. It’ll help to run in front of a large crowd like they have here because there will be a big audience in Oregon.”
Katy Viuf will be competing in the finals of the pole vault today.
For more results, go to the UCLA web site.