Mike Landers (UCLA) 17-8.50

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http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/art ... p?id=36618

First at last
Years of practice finds Landers living up to potential, setting a season record for pole vault at the invitational on Saturday

ANDREW HSIEH/daily bruin

After four years of setbacks and not jumping up to expectations, redshirt junior Mike Landers posted the second-best vault mark in the nation, 17 feet, 8.50 inches, on Saturday at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at UCLA.

By David Garcia
DAILY BRUIN REPORTER
dgarcia@media.ucla.edu

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."