Lexi Ellis won her first Pac-12 title in the triple jump on her fifth attempt of the competition. Photo by Kevin Neri
Throughout the season, they shared fight after fight. In practice, Lexi Ellis’ trash-talk helped push Dominique Ruotolo to her limits.
On Sunday, their roles reversed.
“As the older one, I’m the one usually motivating,” Ellis said. “But she was really motivating me today because she knew that I needed to get it done.”
With the support of her teammate, Ellis won the Pac-12 triple jump championship at Hayward Field. Her fifth jump of 42 feet, 11 ½ inches propelled her in front of Ruotolo by 2 ½ inches.
Instead of trash talk, they shared words of support and congratulations as the two celebrated Ellis’ win together.
“It was a lot of positivity,” Ellis said. “A lot of ‘We got this. We can do this. We just got to zone in.’”
In the end, Ruotolo placed third, but she set the tone with her performance in the preliminary round. On her third attempt, she jumped 42-9 and took the lead.
At that point, Ellis trailed Ruotolo and USC’s Temitope Ojora.
She had racked up more fouls than legal jumps. However, seeing her teammate out in front reminded her of all the battles they shared while training for this moment.
Ellis channeled that energy.
Her best jump of the afternoon came on her fifth attempt. After failing to improve that mark on her final jump, the competition was out of her control.
Ojora had the final word. Ellis watched from the sidelines — her fate hanging in the balance.
“I was like, ‘I got this’ until the sixth jump,” Ellis said. “I was not nervous until right after I finished because she got that sixth jump after me.”
