Erica McLain has taken hundreds, maybe even thousands of jumps in her track career, but none as big as the one she took this past May at the 2007 Pacific-10 Conference Championships.

On the Stanford track and the same runway she has trained on for the past three years, McLain leaped straight into the American record books, triple-jumping 46 feet, 5 1/2 inches and setting an American collegiate record.

The soon-to-be senior is quietly becoming one of the most successful and decorated athletes in Stanford history. Besides being an NCAA champion, 10-time All-American and five-time Pac-10 champion, McLain has also competed for the U.S. national team since she was 16.

“It has been one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences of my life,” said McLain, who added that being with Team USA has been a change of pace from college athletics as she remains one of the youngest members of the team.

McLain was just 19, for example, when she traveled to the 2005 World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland. Age got the better of her, she said, and she failed to live up to her expectations. Looking back, she considers the experience a reality check.

“I know that in the future the members of Team USA will become my teammates and friends, just like now at Stanford,” McLain said. “That’s why, no matter what, I wouldn’t trade anything for the chance to compete internationally.”

And the future is coming fast for the 21-year-old from Plano, Texas.

Just a few months ago, McLain placed third in the triple jump at the USA Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis to secure herself a spot for this month’s World Championships in Osaka, Japan. A foot injury soon after, though, changed her plans.

Choosing to bide her time with yet another year at Stanford ahead, McLain looked forward to the greater competition she faces in less than a year: the 2008 Olympic Trials.

“I have a lot of work to do,” McLain said, adding that she was nervous for the coming competition. “But based on my progress last season and my other successes and failures, I am confident I will be ready to give it my all when it counts the most.”

Having spent her collegiate career getting ready for a chance at the Olympics, McLain is already a favorite to qualify for the triple jump; her past results have more than prepared her for the 2008 trials.

This past season, McLain bounced back from failing to qualify for the NCAA long jump championships by winning the indoor triple jump title by nearly a foot. She again proved her strength in the 2007 Big Meet against UC-Berkeley: Despite an injured and wrapped-up leg, she mustered up enough to win both the long jump and triple jump events. McLain’s 10 team points helped ensure a victory over Cal for the women’s team.

And at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships, McLain took third in the long jump, but suffered a crushing defeat in the triple jump when Hampton University’s Yvette Lewis overtook her on the final jump. It was not McLain’s best performance, but after four straight days of competing, she felt like there was nothing more she could do.

“The four day competition takes a lot out of you,” she said. “I knew I was tired, but I didn’t have another day, so I gave it all I had.”

Though she was disappointed, McLain still went on to earn the 10th All-American honor of her collegiate career. The jumping star attributes her continued success to a combination of factors, including her coach, Edrick Floreal, friends and family.

“Erica has grown in her ability to recognize her potential as an athlete,” said Floreal, who has been with McLain since the start of her collegiate career. “She has realized that there is a part of you that knows what you can do and accomplish, and another part that gets it done. Over the past three years, she has recognized those two levels and succeeded at both.”

“Sometimes it is hard to mold a champion, because it requires the athlete to buy into the system that [a coach] is selling, as well as make a transition from thinking that you can be good to knowing that you are good enough to compete with the best,” he added. “Erica knows her abilities and has made that transition.”

McLain said she has learned to trust herself as she transitions to the international stage.

Despite missing the World Championships this summer, McLain has not stopped training. Always looking to the future, she said she needs to improve her jump by almost a foot to secure a spot in the 2008 Olympics.

Another successful year at Stanford will help toward that goal, setting McLain up nicely for a Beijing berth.

“It would be a wonderful graduation present to myself,” she said.