It’s quite a leap

So Washington State is towing its Swedish glider out of the hangar today and letting her fly against rival Washington, and though Ebba Jungmark is new at all this, the proper indoctrinations have been made. She knows exactly who the Huskies are.

They’re, well, Finland.

“We are going to beat the Huskies,” she said. “So bad. Yes. We don’t like the Huskies.”

This is said with a hint of a giggle, as if such a brash prediction has no business being broadcast in her soft, slightly self-conscious English. And yet in the next moment, Jungmark reveals that on a trip to an indoor track meet at UW with her teammates this winter, she would offer joking disparagement of any Huskies she saw – “in Swedish, so they don’t understand.”

“This is something like we have in Sweden against Finland,” she said, “though that’s a lot bigger. That’s the most fun competition during the year. You get to beat a big team instead of just an individual. I really enjoy that.”

Today, the Cougars and Huskies meet at Mooberry Track in Pullman for their annual dual, with Jungmark both the mystery guest and the most accomplished athlete on the field.

It’s her first competition since she won the NCAA indoor high jump title in March with a leap of 6 feet, 21/4 inches, a mere 68 days after first setting foot in a classroom – the quickest leap from enrollment to national champion at WSU since Henry Rono 32 years ago. She had planned to be on campus for fall semester, but her extended 2007 season – including an appearance at the IAAF World Championships – made that problematic.

There isn’t a great deal in the way of competition for her at this meet, yet coach Rick Sloan senses that just the buzz among her teammates is giving her some anxiety.

“Everyone around her is so impressed with her that she feels a degree of pressure,” he said. “Everybody has such high expectations of her, but I’ve told her the only ones that matter are those she has for herself. And those are higher than what anybody’s thinking anyway.”

Well, there is one other expectation that’s just as heavy.

Svensk Friidrott, Sweden’s track and field federation, has declared that the 21-year-old Jungmark must clear 6-41/2 before the end of June to earn her way on to the country’s team for the Beijing Olympics. It’s within reach – her best is 6-31/2 – but the clock is obviously ticking.

Jungmark’s arrival is a welcome throwback to the days when WSU track was not just a national power, but world class. Olympic medalists and national record holders doubled up in dual meets at Mooberry – though the process that brought them to Pullman never seemed as delicate as what it took to put Jungmark in uniform.

Not that she was reluctant. From the small town of Onsala about 40 kilometers south of Gothenburg, Jungmark had tired of the hour’s commute each way to practice and lonesome workouts with a solitary coach. She wanted the experience of attending an American college and had a friend, distance runner Sara Trane, already at WSU. On a visit to the States with her mother, Jungmark quickly eliminated Clemson from her short list of suitors “because at this school, you could tell that the track people really wanted to go and practice.

“People are really nice,” he said. “So open. I really like being here.”

But there was some, well, negotiation. Sloan had to map out a schedule with her Swedish coaches geared toward the international season but also making Jungmark available – and at her best – for WSU’s most important meets, which is why she is only now making her outdoor debut. In addition, Friidrott technical director Anders Ryden spent a week in Pullman checking things out.

“I don’t think they disliked me going here,” Jungmark said. “But I’m sure they’d prefer to have me home.”

Especially in an Olympic year. With the retirement of former Olympic bronze medalist Kajsa Bergqvist, Jungmark is Sweden’s next great hope in the event. Her marks and accomplishments mirror that of Bergqvist, a two-time NCAA champ at SMU, at the same age – though Bergqvist obviously made the jump to a much higher level, eventually setting the still-standing world indoor record of 6-93/4.

But these are pressures for later, leavened for the moment by a new life with boisterous new friends who have broken down some of her natural shyness – and by strange discoveries almost daily.

“Like the weather in Pullman.” she said, laughing. “And the food. Here we dip everything and have cheese on everything. That’s what I’ve found.”

Along with a healthy dislike for a new rival.