Ariana Washington's NCAA double latest great moment for Poly alum

A few weeks after the NCAA track and field regional meet in Kansas, Oregon redshirt freshman and Long Beach Poly alum Ariana Washington got a fuy feeling.

A good feeling, but a fuy one. The next two weeks were spent tossing and tuing at night.

“I didn’t get a good night’s sleep at all,” she said. “And then today, everything went right.”

Indeed, from sleepless nights to a dream of a day, Washington had the best performance ever by a freshman at the NCAA championships in Eugene, Ore. on Saturday. Washington claimed national titles in the 100 and the 200, becoming the first freshman to double in the sprints and just the second for any class. She became the first freshman to win two individual events.

She was the first freshman to win the 200 and just the second freshman ever to win the 100.

Her times (10.96 in the 100 and 22.21 in the 200) qualify her for the Olympic Trials, which will be in Eugene in three weeks. The wind-legal time in the 200 was a huge personal best and is the No. 5 time in the world this year. In the 2012 Olympic Games, it would have been good enough for fourth place. The mark in the 100 came with a wind slightly more than legal and would have claimed seventh place at the ’12 Games.

All of this is even more remarkable given where Washington was last year. Just like this year she was in Eugene, but as a spectator, watching her friends run in the finals while she recovered from a broken foot. The road back was slow. She redshirted and this winter wasn’t quite strong enough to qualify for the indoor season finals.

Even entering Saturday, her coach, Robert Johnson, didn’t want her pushing herself too hard.

“Don’t do anything you haven’t done before,” he told her.

Instead, she did something that nobody has done before, wiing the two national titles in a matter of a half hour. In addition, she also anchored the Oregon women’s 4x100 relay team to a third-place finish. Her 21.5-point performance was the most points ever eaed by a freshman at the NCAAs.

“I’m just so proud of Ariana,” Poly coach Crystal Irving said. “She is always great under pressure and she pushed her performance past its limits for a major victory on the track.”

Washington’s sprints coach at Poly agreed.

“It was a phenomenal day and a credit to her hard work,” Doc Moye said. “She showed what peaking when it counts means.”

Washington is hoping that she hasn’t peaked just yet. With three weeks to recover and push forward before the Trials, she thinks she can get her times down even lower. Regardless of what happens going forward, something special happened on Saturday. That was obvious watching Washington leave the field and see her former Poly teammate, LSU’s Kymber Payne, give Washington a hug and then Washington collapsed into her mother’s arms. They held each other for 30 seconds, crying.

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“It’s just been ... I can’t even describe the feeling,” Washington said. “It really hasn’t hit me yet. I’ve been feeling the love all day, I just wish everyone could have been here to feel the Hayward (Stadium) magic and hear the crowd. It was something else.”

With a bright future laid out ahead of her and a frustrating injury officially in the rear-view mirror, Washington knows how important the next three weeks are. She also knows that it’s usually a good idea to bet on her, not against her.

“One thing I told my coach before this meet is that I’ve always been good at showing up when I need to,” she said.