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Junior Chelsea Johnson prepares to defend her national title in the pole vault at next week’

Everything UCLA’s Chelsea Johnson has endured so far this season will all be worth it if she can achieve her goals next week at the NCAA Championships. All the leg injuries. The months of rehab after she underwent surgery in September to repair ligament damage in her left knee. The near-disastrous sixth-place finish at the NCAA Regionals in Oregon this past weekend. That is all behind Johnson, who has regrouped in practice this week and will focus her energy on winning a second consecutive national championship in the pole vault next week in Sacramento. Johnson, despite all the adversity she has faced this season, still boasts the best collegiate mark in the nation this year, but she has yet to approach the heights she soared to during her record-setting sophomore campaign last year. Even before she won the NCAA title last June, Johnson regularly cleared at least 14 feet, 6 inches during the course of the season. Her season-best performance this year, a jump of 14 feet, 1.25 inches at USC last month, marks the only time she has cleared 14 feet since the U.S. Olympic Trials, and at the Regional meet in Oregon last week, her best jump was just 12 feet, 11.75 inches. But there is reason to believe that Johnson, one of only three women who return from last year to defend their titles, may be atop the podium again this year. Last year, Johnson also struggled late in the season, no-heighting at the USC meet and falling short of the 14-foot mark at the Pac-10 Championships. And before Regionals this year, she had been incrementally improving each week and seemed to be peaking in time for NCAAs. The top contenders that Johnson will face in Sacramento include several familiar faces: Washington’s Kate Soma and San Diego State’s Shayla Balentine, a former high school rival of Johnson. Another championship hopeful, Kansas’ Amy Linnen, also has West Coast roots, having competed at Arizona for most of her career. Johnson, who will also compete at the U.S. National Championships in Carson, Calif., later this month, has been hoping to start clearing some bigger bars for weeks. Her recent history in Sacramento, however, isn’t especially promising. At the 2003 NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Johnson, then a freshman, failed to clear the bar on any of her three attempts at the opening height, prematurely ending what had been a solid debut season. Unable to watch the rest of the meet, a teary-eyed Johnson sat by the runway with her head buried in her hands before retreating into the arms of her parents. Her return trip to Sacramento is less than a week away, and Johnson is confident it will end differently this time. Not in tears by the edge of the track, but atop the podium hoisting a trophy.

ODDS AND ENDS: The last time UCLA competed in Sacramento was at the 2003 NCAA Championships when the Bruins finished a disappointing eighth ... The event will be in Sacramento for the next three years, marking the first time it will be in the same city in successive years since 1944-45.