By Leaps and Bounds : Irvine’s Veltman, Who Shows Promise as a Heptathlete, Is Quickly Adding Her Name to the School’s Record Books

Marieke Veltman’s coaches wait with a calm curiosity to see how far she will be able to leap when the long jumper finally gets to concentrate on that one event, in a meet that includes other top jumpers.

Most of the time, the UC Irvine junior is all over the track, moving efficiently from event to event, if not actually competing in two at once.

“In dual meets, she might do five or six events,” said Kevin McCarthy, an assistant coach who works closely with Veltman, whose first name is pronounced Mah-REE-kuh. “She can never warm up, never focus. She’ll do one long jump, go do the hurdles, come back and finish the long jump. She’ll high jump at the same time as she’s doing the javelin.”

On the day last month when Veltman jumped 20 feet 9 3/4 inches to break a UC Irvine record that had stood since 1983, she also won the 100-meter low hurdles and the 200, both in personal-best times.

The jump that sank Michelle Kelley’s nine-year-old record was Veltman’s first of the day, and when she took off, her foot had barely reached the board.

“She probably lost three or four inches,” McCarthy said.

Had she taken all six of her jumps, she might have become the first woman in Irvine history to jump 21 feet. She still probably will, but on that day, Veltman took one more jump and then saved her energy for some of the other events she had entered.

The tendency to do whatever it takes to win, and not always a lot more, is typical. At the Mt. San Antonio College Relays Saturday, Veltman was feeling sluggish, and was tempted to pass up her final jumps to prepare for the 4X100 relay. But when two jumpers overtook her lead, she stuck it out, and won the competition on her final jump.

Veltman, born in North Carolina and raised in San Jose, was a rambunctious youngster who was always running, rarely walking even inside the house. One of her favorite activities was jumping from a ledge in the living room to see how far she could go. Other children quickly learned that she was strong and fast.

“We’d play Red Rover, and the other team would never call me because I’d always break through the lines,” Veltman said. “I got used to just standing there.”

Her introduction to track came as a fifth-grader, when she entered a YMCA meet and won every event she entered. Veltman was hooked.

She came to Irvine to focus on long jumping, and spent her first year adjusting to college competition. Last season, when she was a sophomore, McCarthy guided her toward the heptathlon, the seven-event competition that is the women’s version of the decathlon. Veltman quickly learned that the event has an identity problem, despite Jackie Joyner Kersee’s dominance of it.

“People go, ‘How many events is that? Is that running and horseback riding? Is that like triathlon?’ ” Veltman said.

This year, she has come into her own.

“She took her off-season very seriously,” Williams said. “She discovered weights. She decided to become a true competitor, not just a participant who comes out and says, ‘I’m on the track team.’

“She’s making a statement. She’s really hungry and excited about the sport. I don’t see her content.”

Veltman is a promising heptathlete, and her jumping has improved dramatically since she took up the event, largely because of workouts that have improved her speed, a key factor in the long jump.

With a year of eligibility remaining, she intends to redshirt next season and compete in 1994.

She is far from done, but already her name has cropped up on a number of Irvine’s all-time lists. Besides her school record in the long jump, she ranks in the top 10 in the 100 and 200, the 100 low hurdles, long jump and triple jump.

Perhaps more important than her growing prowess in the heptathlon, though, is the fact that she is a member of the Irvine team, with the emphasis on team. In scoring, the heptathlon is one event. But enter seven events individually, and that is seven opportunities to score. With that in mind, it’s likely that Veltman won’t be entered in the heptathlon in next month’s Big West Conference championships at Fresno, but in a number of individual events, the better to rack up points.

“She could place in five events at conference,” McCarthy said.

The field in the long jump will probably be particularly tough, because Nevada Las Vegas has three women who have jumped 21 feet. Shunta Rose, the most prominent, leaped 21-8 at last year’s Big West meet at Irvine. Billie Butler and Trevaia Williams are also very accomplished.

Veltman’s jump of 20-9 3/4 qualified her provisionally for the NCAA championships and--most important to her--the Olympic trials. But reaching the provisional mark doesn’t guarantee anything. Williams estimates she needs a 21-foot-plus jump to make the field for the Olympic trials, and Veltman agrees.

“I’d like to make the automatic (21-3), because if not, basically, I’ll be watching it on TV,” she said.

A foot is considered an excellent but achievable progression during the course of a season.

“Last year I (got a personal record of a foot),” Veltman said. “This year I hopefully can expect the same. That would do it.

“I think this year I’ll be very satisfied to make the Olympic trials. I do not expect at all to make the team.”

She feels different about 1996. That is the year she has designated for the fulfillment of a dream that began at the fifth-grade track meet, to make the Olympic team.

Veltman believes she can, and that confidence fits in with her personality. She isn’t someone who minds being noticed. A fan of Florence Griffith Joyner, as a youngster she used to take Magic Markers and color her shoes purple and green. Next year, when she’s competing unattached she says, “I’ll probably wear magenta and fuschia or something.”

No matter what colors she wants to wear, Irvine’s glad to have her.

“Marieke is going to be Marieke,” Williams said. “Personality-wise, she’s a little different. That’s part of the nature. I’ve always thought there’s a small line between confident and cocky. It depends on whose opinion it is. In my opinion, she’s very confident. Now in some of her opponents’ opinions, she’s cocky. I’m happy she’s on my side.”