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Candace Baucham set the NCAA meet record on her final attempt in the triple jump with a mark of 4

In all the time UCLA’s Candice Baucham spent reflecting on the end of her collegiate career this weekend, she never envisioned a more perfect exit scenario than this. Baucham, a senior, became the first Bruin to capture the national title in the triple jump Saturday night in Sacramento, breaking the NCAA meet record on her final attempt with a mark of 46 feet, 2 inches. The mark is the farthest jump by any U.S. woman so far this year, and the sixth best all-time. “Ever since I got here, I’ve been thinking how this is my last collegiate competition,” Baucham said. “To get a personal best in my last jump, I couldn’t have imagined a better ending.” Of the competitors who seemed capable of taking aim at the meet record, 46 feet, .75 inches, Baucham, seeded fourth in the event, certainly wasn’t the most likely choice. The favorites coming into the event, NCAA indoor champion Gisele Oliveira of Clemson and freshman phenom Erica McLain of Stanford, have both been in the 45-foot range consistently this season. Baucham’s previous season-best in comparision was 44 feet, 6 inches. Yet, from the second round of the competition, it was Baucham who was in control. She became the first UCLA woman ever to jump over 45 feet on her second jump, allowing her to relax for the rest of the competition. That rest allowed her to clear 45 feet twice more before unleashing her best jump in the final round, which topped the runner-up Oliveira by more than a foot. “My second jump was a personal record, so I was satisfied with that,” Baucham said. “But my coaches knew that I had more in me and it just kept coming. I was glad that it came up on the last one.” It was the perfect ending to a very satisfying meet for Baucham, who finished fifth in the long jump competition on Friday with a mark of 20 feet, 8 inches. Saturday’s performance also helped the three-time All-American erase the memory of last year’s NCAA Championships, in which she came in as one of the top seeds, but barely escaped the prelims, finishing in ninth place overall. “A lot of people thought I was done,“ Baucham said. “But I knew I just had to be patient.” On Saturday night, that patience finally paid off.

COMING THROUGH: Before she won the discus competition at the Pac-10 Championships last month, UCLA’s Kamaiya Warren always assumed her future was in the shot put. However, after taking third place in the discus at the NCAA Championships on Friday afternoon with a throw of 178 feet, 2 inches, Warren may have to reconsider. “It was my goal to come here and place in the top three,” Warren said. “Physically I haven’t felt great all week, but I wasn’t going to let anything distract me. Winning the Pac-10 was a magic spark for me and I’ve been using that spark ever since.”

ODDS AND ENDS: UCLA’s MacKenzie Hill, who had hoped to lower her personal best in the 400-meter hurdles into the 57-second range, instead ran 59.66 seconds and did not make it through the first round of prelims Thursday ... Making her first appearance at NCAAs, Nastassja Hall placed 20th in the heptathlon, scoring 5115 points, more than 200 shy of her personal best ... Former Bruin Sheena Gordon, who transferred to North Carolina after last season, finished seventh in the high jump and ninth in the triple jump ... The UCLA women became the fifth Bruin team to finish second in the nation this season, joining women’s soccer, men’s volleyball, women’s golf, and softball.