Many student-athletes will graduate this spring having put in valuable years at Iowa. To track and field thrower Laulauga Tausaga, her final months on campus are bittersweet.

Tausaga — known to her teammates as “Longi” — may be a senior, but she is just getting started.

Her final season in the Black and Gold will not only mark the end of her career at Iowa, but the beginning of a journey to the summer 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Her mark in the discus (63.71) qualified her for the U.S. Olympic team.

“We got the mark, so I can kind of breath, but at the same time, I can’t,” Tausaga said. “I understand that I have to finish my collegiate season first, which means trying to win every meet, trying to improve my mark, make sure that I make it to an indoor national meet, an outdoor national meet in the events that I need to, and just be the best athlete I can be.

“And as soon as that Outdoor National Championship is done, it’s time for me to realize that I’ve graduated into the next level. I’m going to have to understand that I can’t be scared — I’m the lead thrower. I’m going to try to make that Olympic team.”

The Spring Valley, California, native only began throwing when she was a sophomore in high school, and it had nothing to do with having a passion for the sport.

Tausaga didn’t want to take a P.E. course.

“If you played a varsity sport, like — one varsity sport equaled a semester of P.E., and I didn’t want to do P.E.,” Tausaga said. “They told me, ‘You just throw a ball,’ and I was, like, ‘Let’s do it.’”

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That decision to compete in track and field in high school led to college offers thrown her way. Tausaga, despite preferring to stay near her family, committed to Iowa because of how “family-oriented” the Hawkeye community is.

“It’s been unbelievable [being a Hawkeye student-athlete],” Tausaga said. “There’s something very special about Iowa just because the people here really care about their athletes — be it Iowa State or UNI, like, they know you. I could go all the way by Drake, and someone could come up to me and say, ‘Hey, you’re that girl,’ and I’m, like, ‘You know who I am?’ because track is not very popular unless it’s running.

“When people come up to me and say they read about me in The Daily Iowan, it shows that there are supporters of the sport and the craft.”

In a little less than four years, Tausaga has made a name for herself among her teammates, many of whom are also distinguished All-Americans, as well as the rest of the track community.

Just last season, Tausaga was named USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Female Athlete of the Year after clinching her third Big Ten Championship and first NCAA discus title. Tausaga qualified for the 2019 World Athletics Championship in Qatar, where she placed fifth in the qualifying performance round but fell in the finals.

Tausaga was added to the 2020 Bowerman Women’s Preseason Watch List, an honor in track and field that equates to being nominated for the Heisman Trophy. Tausaga is the first Hawkeye to ever be nominated for the award.

“My whole mindset has changed,” Tausaga said. “I want to do better. I go to practices, and I used to be a bit more laid back, but now I’m punching it out at practice because I know my effort at practice can apply to each track meet, so I’m ready for that.

“I just want to let the world know that I’m still here, that I’m still training, and that I’m still trying to do the best that I can. I have to understand that I can’t focus on it, as well. I can hear [the Bowerman] in the back of my head, but I just have to focus on doing better than last year.”