EUGENE - Before Oregon senior Sasha Wallace could become a NCAA champion, she had to focus.

And, for someone so athletically gifted, focusing can be difficult.

Wallace excelled in both hurdles races and the horizontal jumps en route to being selected as Gatorade California girls high school track athlete of the year in both 2012 and 2013.

She arrived at Oregon with the understanding she could take a stab at the multi-events, and spent time as a freshman practicing the shot, javelin and high jump.

What she learned in a hurry was how much she didn't know.

Before long, the experiment with the multis was over.

"It would have required me to allocate more time to events I'd never done before," Wallace said.

More time learning to throw the javelin would have meant less time perfecting the hurdles and jumps.

"I got a little sad," Wallace said. "I'm not saying I couldn't have been a decent heptathlete, but there are only so many hours in the day. It was a step of me maturing, sitting down and saying, 'This is what might be best for me and my future.'"

UO sprints and hurdles coach Curtis Taylor was glad to see it.

Before coming to Oregon, Taylor coached on the community college level in California, and was a youth development coach in East Oakland.

He worked with Wallace there, and saw the potential.

But he also saw how thin she spread herself.

"Her senior year of high school, she did the long jump, triple jump and 100-meter hurdles at the California state championships," Taylor said. "That was a lot of her."

He envisioned her as either hurdles or a jumper, and preferably a hurdler.

"Sasha was the best triple jumper in the country in high school," Taylor said. "I still think she could be a great triple jumper. But for the work and time, the reward in the big picture probably isn't worth as much."

U.S. women don't register on the international scale as triple jumpers. But U.S. 100 hurdlers dominate at the world level. Post-collegians are compensated accordingly.

Wallace is good enough in the hurdlers to be able to potentially elbow her way into the international conversation.

She is the school record-holder with a time of 12.95 seconds, and won the 2017 NCAA indoor title in the 60 hurdles after finishing a close second indoors a year ago.

"I was really dialed in," she said.

It's becoming a habit.

By zeroing in on the hurdles, Wallace has been able to fine tune her technique.

"Before, she could run a fast time, but she couldn't reproduce it," Taylor said. "Now she is like clockwork. I think every week this year she ran under eight seconds indoors, which is phenomenal."

Sasha Wallace is all business as she wins the 60-meter hurdle final at this year's NCAA Indoor Championships.

She will have to translate it to the outdoor season, which for Wallace begins on Friday at the Florida Relays.

Wallace is such a fast starter, she can grab control of a 60-meter race out of the blocks. The ability to finish becomes more important outdoors, when the race is 40 meters further.

"The second part of my race isn't as strong," she conceded. "But coming into the season, I'm not really thinking about that too much. I'm just going out there to see if I can compete stronger than I did the week before."

Wallace isn't that far away from the pinnacle.

She was third at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships and a semifinalist in last summer's U.S. Olympic Trials. Later in the summer she watched on television as Team USA swept the 100-hurdle medals in Rio.

Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin went 1-2-3. World record-holder Keni Harrison couldn't make the U.S. team.

From top to bottom, the 100 hurdles in the trials were more competitive than were the Olympics themselves.

"It puts in perspective how good America is in the short hurdles," Wallace said. "It was just amazing to be part of that group of women."

And, perhaps, points to what is possible if Wallace maintains her focus.

She hasn't quit triple jumping, and ranks No. 4 on the UO career list. But it's not the emphasis it once was.

"I would say I'm more of a hurdler who jumps," she said.

Taylor said Wallace is more serious in every way as she begins her final college season.

"I think one day the switch just went on in her head," he said. "She has become more of a 24-hour athlete. She is taking care of herself, eating better, and doing all the little things.

"When you're starting to move into the higher levels of track and field, it's not just a two-hour-a-day job. It's a lifestyle."

-- Ken Goe

kgoe@oregonian.com | @KenGoe