Former gymnast on track (and field) in her new sport

June 28, 2007

By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

It took Carlsbad High’s Erin Langford six years to find her right sport. Now she’s wondering if after three years of track and field, she might be about to discover her best event.

Langford, a 5-foot-10 senior that led the San Diego Section in the triple jump for most of the year, surprised the field at the CIF San Diego Section track and field finals on May 26 with a Bob Beamon-esque effort in the long jump. She improved nearly a foot over her previous best of 17-5 on her final jump with win the CIF title with a leap of 18-4 ¾.

Her versatility in the jump events is why UC San Diego recruited her to the NCAA Division II track power.

Langford was one of San Diego’s top youth gymnasts until she literally outgrew the sport, and that background will help with her plans to experiment in college with the heptathlon or even the pole vault.

“She could be great in the heptathlon,” said Oceanside High jumps coach Willie Buchanon, the former Pro Bowl cornerback with the Chargers and Green Bay Packers and track star at Oceanside.

The heptathlon, the eight-event competition that is women’s track’s equivalent of the decathlon, requires athleticism and versatility. And many of the nation's top pole vaulters have a gymnastics background.

“I’m looking forward to competing in college,” Langford said. “I know I’m not going to be the best in the nation (in the triple jump), but I like competing and improving my marks. I’m not burned out and my body is holding up. I think I can still excel, and I definitely want to try the heptathlon.”

When Langford says she’s not burned out by track, she’s speaking from a good frame of reference. After six years of intense training and competition in gymnastics, she realized her sophomore year she was not only getting too tall -- she was 5-8 by then -- she was tiring of regimen.

“I miss the competition of gymnastics, but I don’t miss the time commitment,” she said. “I was basically going to school, working out, doing my home work and then going to bed. I did that every day but Sunday.”

The bars competition was the beginning of the end of gymnastics for her. With her height, she had to bend her legs, costing her points, when she swung under the bar to keep from hitting the eight-inch mat. If she moved the mat to protect her scoring, she was forced to make hard landings without the padding of the mat.

Eventually she went from choosing between losing points or hard landings that risked injury to following a friend out to the Carlsbad track to try out for the team. It didn’t take her long to make her mark.

“My friend wanted to try the jump events,” Langford recalled. “There was a mark -- I think it was 14 feet -- and if you cleared it you were on the varsity. I did, and the coach said, ‘OK, you’re on the varsity.’ ”

She also benefited from a winter clinic before her junior season with Willie Banks, the former world record-holder in the triple jump. Buchanon and Banks are both Oceanside High alums and members of the Breitbard Hall of Fame.

Oddly enough, Langford was the only one who reported for triple jump workouts with Banks. That meant she had two hours of one-on-one attention with the triple jump legend.

"I had to learn about the triple jump, but I knew who Willie Banks was,” said Erin’s mother, Katie, an administrator in the Vista Unified School District. “She didn’t realize who he was, and I had to explain it to her. She appreciated the time, and he really did help her.”

Langford continued to make jumping look simple next three years as one of the section’s top long and triple jumpers. She won this year's Avocado League triple jump title with a leap of 35-9.

But the triple jump didn’t come without some trying moments. It was a bit of a comeback performance from an upset loss an hour earlier in the long jump.

“What I like about watching her compete is her determination,” said her mother. “I also like seeing her sportsmanship. She’s always talking with the other athletes.”

In the long jump, Oceanside’s Wisdom Hodges beat Langford with a leap of 17-9 to Langford’s 17-5. Hodges then paid Langford the ultimate compliment as a rival athlete.

“I never thought I could beat her,” Hodges said. “I don’t think I ever even came close until today.”

Three years after taking up track and field, Langford doesn’t always win, but she has plenty of room left to grow in this sport.

Tom Shanahan can be contacted at 619-699-2334 or toms@sdhoc.com.