Collins works her way to top

Lauren Collins works with as many as three coaches a day. She has consulted with a nutritionist, has embraced weight training and has spent more than her fair share of time in the UC Irvine training room.

But one thing the sophomore heptathlete will never require, is the expertise of a motivational speaker.

“This is my 30th year of coaching and I’ve worked with Olympic-caliber athletes,” UCI assistant track and field coach Kevin McCarthy said. “And she is one of the toughest girls I know. She does everything and is always trying to get better. She is always asking me, ‘What do I need to do to improve?’ She spends countless hours working out and she does what she’s supposed to do.”

Collins’ results endorse her coach’s endorsement. This season, she has set the school record for the heptathlon (5,446 points at the Mt. SAC Relays April 11-12 at Azusa Pacific University), as well as the school record in the high jump 5 feet, 11 1/4 inches. Both records had stood for at least 20 years.

Her best heptathlon score ranks 13th in the nation and McCarthy said the plan is to have Collins redshirt next year to concentrate on training for the Olympic trials.

But, as McCarthy says, Collins is a rare combination of athletic ability and indomitable spirit.

Collins, who starred in the hurdles and high jump at Santa Margarita High, said she first developed her tireless work ethic during a nine-year career in gymnastics that began at age 8.

“I spent five hours a day in the gym, five nights a week,” said Collins, who finally gave up the sport during high school, in order to experience a more well-rounded life.

When Collins came to UCI — a recruiting coup that still puts a smile on the face of McCarthy as well as Head Coach Vince O’Boyle — she was eager to complicate her athletic life by accepting the challenge of the heptathlon, the women’s version of the decathlon that features seven events instead of 10.

The outdoor heptathlon, in which Collins will compete at the Big West Conference Multi-Event Championship, today and Sunday at Cal State Northridge, features the 200 meters, the 800, the high jump, the 100 hurdles, the long jump, the shot put and the javelin throw.

“Hurdles and high jump are a lot fun, but they’re both very technical events,” Collins said. “Once you hit a certain level, it’s very hard to improve. A few coaches mentioned the heptathlon, and I knew I loved to pick up new events. I also knew the hard work and long hours wouldn’t bother me. I thought it would be a lot of fun.”

Two years later, Collins is completely hooked on the heptathlon, despite some debilitating injuries that have forced her to consistently curb her training regimen.

Collins began experiencing foot problems last year, which forced her to switch take-off legs in the long jump. It’s the equivalent of a basketball player learning to shoot with their non-dominant hand.

The foot problem also greatly restricted her practice time in the high jump, as not to aggravate the injury, which a round of cortisone shots failed to improve.

Additionally, Collins regularly duels tendonitis in both knees — a carryover from her gymnastics career — which limits the kind of leg exercises and training she can do.

She curtailed her activities during the summer, hoping her tendonitis would subside, but the first day of fall workouts, the knee pain returned with an intensity so severe, it made walking difficult.

After missing several weeks of training, she then strained a hamstring, then a quadriceps, which meant even more time out and exponentially more aggravation.

“In the heptathlon, you’re not just getting behind in one event, but in seven,” she said.

Still, her dogged determination allowed her to make significant improvements this season.

The loss of 10-15 pounds from last year, which she attributes to a healthy eating plan that has changed her life, has helped Collins trim about a second off her time in the 200. She’s about 10 seconds faster in the 800, said McCarthy, who believes if Collins can maintain her progress, will be among the best in the United States by the time she is a senior.

“She’s young and she’s competing against girls who have been training in the heptathlon for five years,” McCarthy said. “But she doesn’t like to lose and she wants to be the best in the United States.”

Collins, who glances daily at a piece of paper on her bedroom wall that lists this year’s heptathlon goal (5,527), said her inner drive is something she simply cannot deny.

“You have to be tough,” she said. “I feel like I just want it so badly, I can’t just let it go. If I’m not feeling well or having a bad practice, sometimes you just have to tough it out and work through the pain, because you know that’s what you have to do. It’s the same with eating. You want that piece of cake so badly, but you know it’s not worth it.

“My desire keeps me going, she said. “There may be people out there with more natural ability, but not many who are working as hard and want it as badly. I do everything I can, every day, to get better, because I know hard work is going to pay off in the end.”