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Monique Henderson ran the 400-meter dash in 49.96 seconds at the U.S. Track and Field Championshi

Monique Henderson did not lose a single race in her senior year at UCLA. Only a matter of days after her college career officially ended, Henderson crossed the finish line in third place in the 400 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Championships Saturday in Carson. She could not have been happier. Henderson, the NCAA champion in the 400m, ran a personal-best 49.96 seconds, breaking the 50-second mark for the first time and qualifying for next month’s World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. “This is the happiest I’ll ever be with a third-place performance,” Henderson said. And with good reason. During this past collegiate season, Henderson ran unchallenged in most of her races, capturing the Pac-10, West Regional and NCAA titles. Saturday’s race, which featured Henderson and the other three members of the gold-medallist 2004 U.S. Olympic 4x400m relay team, proved to be a much different story. All three qualifiers for the World Championships clocked in at under 50 seconds, marking the first time three U.S. women have accomplished that feat in the same race. “I said I’d run 49 all season,” Henderson said. “I ran a pretty easy 50.10 at NCAAs and with the competition, I knew the time would come.” Former Texas star Sanya Richards, who had narrowly lost to Henderson in last year’s NCAA Championships, finished first, setting a new personal best with a world-leading time of 49.28 seconds this year. Meanwhile, Dee Dee Trotter, the NCAA champion in 2004, barely edged out Henderson at the finish line in 49.88 seconds. With the trio all in their early 20s, those impressive marks are likely to creep lower and lower. “Every time one of us runs fast, it makes us step it up even harder,” Richards said. “Who knows how far we’ll take it?” All three runners were in close competition in this race throughout, as nobody was able to pull away from the rest of a competitive field and clearly define the superior performance. It was not until the tail end of the home stretch that Richards distanced herself from the field. Henderson got off to a quick start, but Richards and Trotter, both notoriously strong finishers, said they made a concentrated effort to keep pace. “I knew that if she got out in front, she would never come back to the field.” Richards said. For Henderson, it wasn’t too big a disappointment that Richards kept up and eventually won. Hugging her family afterwards and accepting congratulations from fellow athletes and spectators, she enjoyed a scene that will likely become quite familiar in the future. “The three of us are going to be around for a number of years,” Henderson said. If this past weekend’s race was any indication, this threesome will be pushing each other to new heights in the coming years.

REDEEMING THROW: The NCAA Championships left a bittersweet after taste in Jessica Cosby’s mouth, one that she promptly eliminated on Saturday. The graduated senior, who was still recovering from a bout with pneumonia, placed third in the hammer throw at Sacramento two weeks ago, but was far happier with her fifth-place effort in Carson. “It was probably one of my best meets of the year,” Cosby said. “It was redemption from the NCAA championships.” After a strong first throw, Cosby proceeded to foul on three of her next four attempts before throwing a season-best 219 feet, 2 inches on her last effort. But it was Erin Gilreath’s last attempt that drew the most cheers. The defending champion, who had led throughout the event, set an American record with a toss of 242 feet, 4 inches.

SHORT SPRINTS: Dawn Harper finished eighth in the finals of the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.23 seconds. ... Nicole Leach, UCLA’s top recruit, won the U.S. Junior 400m hurdles title for the second consecutive year in 57.25 seconds on Friday. ... Henderson signed a sponsorship deal with Reebok shortly before her first prelim in the 400m on Thursday.

NO LETDOWN: Picking up right where she left off at the end of the collegiate season, Candice Baucham secured a spot on the national team Sunday with her very first effort in the triple jump. The recent graduate, who became the first Bruin to capture a national championship in the event this past season, cleared 45 feet, 11.25 inches on her first jump. Though the mark was a couple inches shy of her recent jump in Sacramento, it was still plenty long enough to send her to Helsinki to compete in the World Championships. Through two rounds, Baucham held the lead until Stanford’s Erica McLean edged her out by half an inch on her third try. Baucham’s initial mark was still comfortably nine inches longer than third place finisher Nicole Whitman and over a foot longer than fourth place finisher Brittany Daniels.