Pac-12 champs Sims, Gates lead Arizona track and field into NCAA opening round

He could have been singing along with Giveon or Miguel.

That’s how Sims gets in the right mindset for what’s about to come next.

And what’s next is what is referred to as a hop, skip and jump — it’s the triple jump, considered one of the hardest events in track and field.

For Sims, singing is a way to relax and it worked.

He not only won the men’s triple jump in the final Pac-12 Championships with a personal best of 52 feet (15.85 meters), he also put up the sixth-highest mark in UA history. That mark is 11th in the nation so far this season, and he became only the second Wildcat to win a conference championship in the event; Luis Rivera-Morales won it in 2009.

That’s a lot to accomplish in one leap. More than a week later, Sims was still trying to take it all in.

“Honestly, it felt unreal,” Sims said. “It still hasn’t necessarily hit me. It hasn’t really settled in. Just because I feel like there’s a lot more work to do.

“I’ve been working all year trying to put myself in a position of just fixing small things (like) being more relaxed. My coach (Bobby Carter) always tells me that I try too hard sometimes and I don’t really have to try to put in too much effort when everything’s supposed to be smooth. And that’s the thing about triple jump: you can’t really be too tense. You need to be a lot more relaxed than you are for the long jump.”

Sims entered the first round of this week’s NCAA Outdoor Championships attempting to balance being relaxed for the triple jump with being a bit more tense for the long jump. Sims and many of his UA teammates traveled to compete in the West regional at John McDonnell Field in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The top 12 finishers in each event will move on to the Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, June 5-8.

Twenty-four individuals, plus two relay teams are competing in the first round.

Sims likes the triple jump “because it’s not something everybody can do,” he said.

“You have to land three times at a reasonable speed,” Sims said. “A triple jump will not necessarily sprint at full speed. But you also have to maintain kind of postural integrity all throughout the jump. So, you don’t fall to the side or whatever the case may be. It’s really tough. You have to make sure your body stays straight in the air throughout all three phases.”

The sophomore has seen a steady uptick in performances in triple jump since arriving at Arizona. He finished seventh at the Pac-12 championships last season. This season he picked up a few second place finishes.

Sims feels like he is just getting started. He’s not the only one.

“He has bigger jumps in him,” Arizona coach Fred Harvey said. “There are people who are designed to do that event. And then there are people who want to do that event but they’re really not going to be that successful because they don’t have all the skill sets that you that they need to do that. He has been blessed to have strength, speed and power.”

Never losing faith

Emma Gates cleared a personal best height of 6 feet, 2 inches (1.88 meters) in the women’s high jump to take first at the Pac-12 Championships. This also met the qualifying standard for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which will be held in a few weeks.

She surpassed her previous best mark by two inches and is the 14th Wildcat woman to win a conference high jump title. Former jumper and hurdler Talie Bonds was the Pac-12 champion two years ago.

The win was far from easy as Gates and Oregon’s Cheyla Scott competed in a jump-off to find the eventual winner. Gates secured the mark on her second attempt and said that they pushed each to jump even higher.

“I don’t think I’ve ever taken that many jumps in a competition,” Gates said in a UA-produced video after her win.

Gates, a three time Oregon USATF Female Track and Field Athlete of the Year in high school, grew up just an hour north of the University of Oregon’s famed Hayward Field, in Turner, Oregon. Harvey said she was one of the top high jumpers in her class and it took a while for her to adapt to collegiate track.

When the sophomore won, Harvey was excited because she “was able to show the country who she actually is,” he said.

“Her ability to be able to focus on getting better, good training, eliminating outside distractions,” Harvey said. “And when we say everything matters — your diet, recovery, restoration — I mean, that’s what really makes her makes her special.

“She’s like a sponge in terms of sucking in every detail of where she needs to improve. She’s relentless in the technical aspects and along with her talent is what’s allowing her to really start to excel. I think you’re just starting to see the beginning of what she’s capable of doing,” he added. “She’s a happy young lady who is a joy to be around. Even when she wasn’t competing at the highest levels and her highest expectation, she never lost faith.”

Peaking at the right time

One of the next in the long line of elite hurdlers at Arizona is sophomore Antonia Sanchez Nunez, who finished third in the women’s 400 meter hurdles with 56.50 at Pac-12 Championships. This is also a personal best and fifth best in UA history.

It was also one of the fastest times in her home country of Mexico.

Sanchez Nunez is another Wildcat peaking at the right time of the year. In the week leading up to the NCAAs, Sanchez Nunez and the UA staff tinkered with her technique. They switched her to 15 steps between the first few hurdles instead of 16 steps. Nunez said she felt like she “was getting too close to the first hurdles.”

They waited to make this adjustment for her strength and endurance to catch up, as well as her ability to run under control, according to Harvey.

“As we start to get faster towards the end of the year, being able to run at that rate of speed now allows you to be able to continue to conserve energy for the back end of the race,” Harvey said.