Getting tough!

[lonestar]

My club had a great weekend at the Texas Relays with several notable performances you can find at www.texastrack.com but I just have to write about one particular example of being tough when it counts.

In the High School Girls "A" Division, my freshman girl, Ari Ince of Gonzales High, had to run the 4x400 during warmups for the vault. Ari was a little intimidated to be in the "A" group, just having jumped 11'0 a few weeks ago and being a freshman in an experienced field. Because of the race, Ari was rushed in getting back over to the pit for warmups. She had to be weighed in and have all her poles checked, and never even had a chance to sit down and catch her breath.

Now anyone who has ever run a quarter knows how much that race takes out of a person. Serious glycogen depletion going on there! As she stood there, she was swaying and quivering from fatigue. Ari's legs were basically rubber, but she only had 10 minutes to warm up. No time for pop-ups, just jump. On her first trip down the runway, her knees are really low and her spike gets caught in the track on her penultimate step and she trips badly. Her momentum makes her fall down into the pole while hanging onto a full plant. The pole bends like 100 degrees and throws her face-first down onto a very rough surfaced runway. As I helped scoop her up off the track she says "I don't think I can do this." After checking her out to see if she was alright, I talked her into getting right back into the saddle and going at it again before she had time to think about it. I told her her only goal was to come down and kick the pole's a@@! She says, "You're darn right I'm going to do that, I'm po'ed!"

Ari comes down on the next warmup jump and loads the same pole to the back of the pit. With her knees and body skinned up pretty nasty, she came back in the meet to jump a new pr 11'4 and was on the biggest pole she's ever planted in a dead wind. Now if that's not getting tough, I don't know what is.

Side note: Ari is a freshman, 6'0 tall, and plays wide receiver on the boys football team, along with basketball, tennis, softball, volleyball, and multiple events in track.

[Crazytrackbabe06]

Wow, that's impressive!

~Jaimie

[jmayesvaultmom]

You can say that again!!!

[Carolina Extreme]

Any chance Ari would want to move to South Carolina. In fact I know a great high school for her. Just kidding.... I guess I need to find my own 6' 0" multi-talented, multi-sport, vaulter extraordinaire.

Congrat's to Ari!

[fong520]

girls can play on a boys football team??.. never heard of that one..
but ya congrats.. i kno how it feels to come off a race into vaulting.. last year i had to run a 800 adn then go into vualting but i didnt do as good as she did heh.

[belmore]

I was standing real close to Ari when she "plopped" to the ground. I couldn't move fast enough to catch her and the plopping is the best way I can describe how she hit the runway. I've been around some pretty good bullriders that might have called it a night after a wreck like that. Ari just "cowboyed up" and dusted her self off. What a display of toughness. This young lady is going to be one to watch.

[theflyingkorean]

girls can play on a boys football team??.. never heard of that one..

didn't you hear about that girl kicker who was on the news a bit ago because of accusations about coach or player harassment or somethign liek that?