Hawkeye track and field star Laulauga Tausaga hopes to build on her freshman success in Peru later this month.
By Jordan Zuniga
On June 22 in Sacramento, California, Iowa’s Laulauga Tausaga won the National Championship in the discus to continue her superb freshman year.
By winning the title, she qualified for the Pan American Junior Championships in Trujillo, Peru, July 21-23.
The Spring Valley, California, native spent the two weeks after her national victory to recover in California, and she has now returned to campus to prepare for her upcoming trip.
“Coach [Andrew Dubs] has moved me back to heavy implements and a heavier weight-room routine,” Tausaga said. “To ensure that my body can, in a way, jump-start back up with Peru being weeks away.”
Tausaga’s confidence is high as she counts down the weeks to Peru. She knows she has as good of a chance as any to take the title.
“If I’m calm and collected, I can feel what my body is doing and that’s when I have decent throws. I have done all I can to this point physically to prepare; the next step is mental,” Tausaga said. “If I can control my mind and get in the zone, I believe I will be ready to throw my [personal record] or near it to win. I know I have a big throw in me, and I’m hoping I can throw it in Peru.”
The Pan American Junior Championships will be the culmination of a phenomenal first season for Tausaga.
Not only did she win the national title, she was also awarded first-team All-Big Ten honors and became the first female Hawkeye ever to win a Big Ten Championship in discus.
RELATED: Hawkeye Track & Field earns May student-athlete of the month
To put a cherry on top, she set the school record for longest discus throw at the NCAA West Preliminary with a distance of 59.37 meters.
All of her accomplishments seem bigger when you remember that Tausaga is only a freshman, but that has only served as motivation for her.
“Being a freshman [this year] has helped me to prove that I can compete with the top girls in collegiate track and field,” Tausaga said. “No one expects a freshman to compete with them or to be just as good, and it let me be an underdog for most of my season and let me focus on proving that I am good enough. It helped because I had no pressure placed on me to win, because I was still learning on how to compete at a D-1 level. There was a drive to do something big my freshman year, and I have accomplished so much.”
This year marks Tausaga’s fifth year competing in track and field events, having garnered a varsity role as a freshman in high school.
Tausaga is certainly no stranger to success when it comes to hurling a discus. In high school, she was a two-time All-State honoree as well as a two-time field Female Athlete of the Year.
She not only won the conference title all four years in high school, she also graduated as the school record holder for longest shot put and discus throws.
Regardless of how Tausaga does in her upcoming meet, she is determined to do big things for the Hawkeyes in the coming years.
“I want to constantly get better, in not only discus but shot put,” she said. “I want to continue to contribute to my team and to one day get first place at NCAAs.”