Sophomore Tamara Aimufia is the 2025 Big West long jump champion and an NCAA track and field championship competitor who has recorded some of the most impressive jumps in UC San Diego history — all in her first two seasons as a Triton. With her accolades, it’s a shocker to learn that she started jumping in her senior year of high school, just three years ago. Since then, her track talent has taken her all the way from her high school state championships to the first round of the NCAA track championships.

On Friday, May 16, Aimufia won the long jump event at the 2025 Big West track and field championships in Long Beach with a distance of 6.08 meters, becoming UCSD’s first Big West track champion. She also placed eighth in the triple jump with an 11.99-meter effort. 

“I wasn’t expecting to win at all,” Aimufia said. “I knew that there were girls better than me in my flight. [But] championships are all about who shows up that day and who performs the best that day, and that turned out to be me. It was definitely a surprise. But I mean, all my practice and hard work finally came to fruition in that moment.”

Aimufia’s title-winning distance wasn’t even her best performance this season. Her personal best is a whopping 6.14 — the second-best jump in UCSD history — which she set at the Triton Invitational on April 5. This distance put her in contention to compete at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field West First Round competition on May 29. She didn’t know she qualified for the meet until eight days before competing.

“I didn’t even know I made it,” Aimufia recalled with a laugh. “I was in Chicago when I got the news that I even made it to regionals. My coach called me, so I was like, ‘Oh!’” 

At NCAA West First Round, Aimufia placed 41st, jumping a distance of 5.82. Although only the top-12 athletes advanced to the next round, Aimufia enjoyed her experience. 

“Even though I didn’t do as well as I wanted, I still had a lot of fun,” Aimufia said. “[I’m] very grateful to have been put in the position to go to Texas and compete with all these super high level athletes. It was a fun experience. I got the experience and all the jitters out of the way. So, hopefully, next year I can come back better, harder, and ranked higher.” 

With all of her accomplishments since coming to UCSD, it is hard to believe that Aimufia started jumping in her senior year of high school.

“I have always been an athlete,” she explained. “From [ages] four to 12, I did gymnastics. Then, all throughout junior high and high school, I did volleyball.” 

In her junior year of high school, Aimufia branched out from volleyball and decided to try track and field. She joined the team and began competing in the 100-meter hurdles.

“The summer of my senior year, I had a hurdles coach, and she told me to start jumping,” Aimufia said. “So, I just tried it for fun. She said I was naturally good at it. I was gifted, so I started jumping my senior year of high school.”

Aimufia started with the long jump and then decided to try out the triple jump, ultimately qualifying to compete at the state level for both. At the 2023 CIF State Track and Field Championship finals, Aimufia placed seventh with her 5.85-meter long jump. She just missed the podium in triple jump, placing fourth in the state for her 12.01-meter triple jump. Her high school personal bests were a 5.88-meter long jump and 12.19-meter triple jump, both school records. As a result of her rapid success, Aimufia decided to stick with the sport in college. But due to her starting her track career later than most, Aimufia’s recruiting process was a bit unusual. Instead of fielding coaches’ calls, Aimufia was the one reaching out.

“I always wanted to be a college athlete,” Aimufia said. “I just didn’t know for what sport. So, when I found out I was good at jumping, I realized I wanted to come to college and do that for my four years here. My recruiting process was a little late because I started everything late. But I reached out to some schools I got into, and coach Randy Bungard here at UCSD hit me back. I got an offer, and that’s how I ended up here.”

Aimufia’s first year at UCSD was marked with constant personal records and tremendous growth. During her first season jumping as a Triton, Aimufia’s best jumps were a 12.36-meter triple jump and a 5.97-meter long jump — the second and third best distances in school history, respectively. 

“It was a really enjoyable season,” Aimufia said. “I’m actually pretty good at what I do.”

After a fruitful first year, Aimufia was ready to keep that momentum going into her second year. This season, however, Aimufia had a bit of a tumultuous start. However, she admitted that, at the start of the season, she wasn’t jumping as well as she had hoped, which posed a challenge both mentally and physically. 

“I definitely had a lot of anxiety going into the season,” Aimufia said. “[I didn’t] know what was going to happen. I think that’s why the beginning of the season was so rough. I started off my freshman year so well, and I didn’t start off well this season.”

Despite this hurdle, Aimufia kept jumping to the best of her abilities, with distances ranging from 5.64 to 6.14 for the long jump and 11.99 to 12.34 in the triple jump. Throughout the season, she turned a “rough” start into an individual Big West title and first-ever Triton long jump appearance in the NCAA competition. 

She attributes her positive outlook to her Christian faith and her frequent calls home, which help ground her when she feels unsteady. Another source of peace for Aimufia is simply being outside. 

“I really [like] being outdoors, just sitting in grass and just being in stillness since like everything is so fast-paced all the time,” Aimufia said. “I just sit down and nature watch.”

Aimufia’s NCAA appearance closed out her 2025 track season. As she heads into next year, Aimufia is aiming even higher. 

“I want the school record,” she said. 

More specifically, Aimufia wants to shoot for 6.19 meters — UCSD’s current best for the long jump, set by Stephanie LeFever in 2011. She is also 0.54 meters off the school’s triple jump record of 12.9 meters, set by Whitney Johnson in 2008. 

“That would be my main goal that I’m trying to hit,” Aimufia said. “Because if I do that, that’s a PR [and a] school record. I [would] hopefully make it to regionals again with that mark.”

Aimufia’s best distances thus far have been 6.14 meters for the long jump and 12.36 meters for the triple jump. If these distances sound impressive, that’s because they are. Aimufia currently holds the second-best triple and long jump distances for UCSD, and she’s only millimeters away from breaking both program records. With her recent success, it won’t be long until she clears them both.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Photo by Lauren Pritchard