Keep your eyes and ears out for UC Davis faculty members and a student who will be fully engaged with the July 15-24 U.S. Track and Field Trials in Sacramento.
Coach Vochatzer coordinates trials
Deanne Vochatzer is preparing for the U.S. Track and Field Trials tomorrow with the equanimity of a seasoned hostess.
It’s just that her guest list includes 1,100 elite athletes, more than 21,000 spectators per day and myriad news crews, all coming to Sacramento for the July 15-24 U.S. Track and Field Trials.
Vochatzer, head women’s track and field coach for UC Davis and for the 1996 U.S. Olympics, is partly responsible for bringing the trials for the first time to Sacramento. As director of competition for the trials she wears innumerable hats and has been responsible for negotiating everything from the initial bid for the trials to the competition schedule with NBC for television coverage. But beyond all of the logistics, the athletes are her primary concern.
"Once the first gun is fired, then it will be my job to keep a finger on the pulse of the trials, making sure that we’re doing the best we can to give each athlete his or her best shot at a place on the Olympic team," said Vochatzer, who expects to work 16-to-18-hour days during the trials.
Every once in a while the magnitude of that task looms overwhelming, and Vochatzer reminds herself that problems will occur but they will be handled. Her confidence is bolstered by the fact that her husband, Jon Vochatzer, UC Davis men’s track coach, is serving as assistant director of competition for the trials.
"It’s our job to make sure that the athletes don’t feel the results of those problems and that the spectators never even know there was a problem," she said.
Pole-vaulter looks to trials for experience
It was really a fluke that led Jennifer Swanson into pole vaulting. Swanson had competed in almost every high-school track and field event possible. But her team at Gilroy High School found it was repeatedly losing nine points at each meet for lack of a pole-vaulter. At her coach’s suggestion, Swanson stepped up to try her hand at the high-flying sport.
She discovered that she could not only meet the team’s needs, but really excelled at pole vaulting and has been at the sport ever since. Last spring, she jumped 12 feet-4 inches and repeated that height during this year’s indoor season, setting a new indoor record for herself and for UC Davis.
In April, she qualified for the U.S. Track and Field Trials in Sacramento, vaulting 13 feet-1.5 inches. And, she was named the Western Region Female Athlete of the Year for indoor events by the U.S. Track and Field Coaches Association in 1999 and 2000 and for outdoor events in 2000.
"I’m going to the trials for the experience," said Swanson realistically, noting that it will probably take a 15-foot vault to make the U.S. Olympic team.
But she’s wholeheartedly training five days per week, with two days spent in vaulting and five days devoted to running and lifting weights. An exercise-science major, Swanson has been juggling training, competition and studies, while also working part-time at a physical therapy clinic. After mid-year graduation next year, she hopes to go on to graduate school in physical therapy and eventually specialize in sports rehabilitation.
She will compete July 21 for the opportunity to contend with a handful of other finalists on July 23 for the U.S. Olympic team.
Nutritionist plans menus for track and field trials
Liz Applegate’s message to elite athletes and the average person is quite simple: diet counts.
Applegate, a UC Davis nutrition lecturer and former award-winning triathlete, was asked to help plan the menus that will be made available to athletes at hotels and on-site locations during the U.S. Track and Field Trials.
She suggested menus that would offer a variety of high-quality protein and carbohydrates. For the vegetarian athletes, she suggested that plenty of soy-based products, such as tofu and soymilk, be available.
"In general, track and field athletes pay superb attention to their diets," says Applegate, who also serves as a nutrition consultant to Olympic and professional athletes. "It has to do a lot with the type of highly motivated person it takes to go out and train individually for these sports."
Compared to the average person, elite athletes require higher calorie intake and more protein than the average person does. They also need to eat more often, Applegate noted. And those who compete in distance events want to make sure that their bodies’ carbohydrate stores are well stocked.
During the Olympic trials, athletes will attempt to maintain the same type of diet they’ve been training on.
"The days here in Sacramento will be really crucial for them and they won’t want to blow their chances by eating something new that might cause them stomach distress," Applegate says.
Although most of us won’t be pole vaulting or running a 100- meter relay anytime soon, we all need to pay attention to basic good nutrition and exercise principles practiced by elite athletes, she stresses.
"We’re all running our own marathons," she said.