POLE VAULT

KRISTEN KEITH

SOUTHLAKE CARROL HIGH SCHOOL POLE VAULTER CLEARS 13-FEET-0

[click link below for video]

http://www.texaspolevault.com/videos/Kristen_Keith13feet.wmv

JACOB NORMAN

JUMP TEXAS: Share with Jump Texas your earliest memory of participating in track and field.

JACOB NORMAN: My first race was — ah — when I was a fifth grader at Jefferson Elementary, at the Little [Temple] Wildcat Relays. I was in the 100 [meters] and made it to the finals. I got first in the prelims and got beat [in the finals] by my cousin, Ramonce Taylor, the running back for the University of Texas [at Austin].

JUMP TEXAS: Have you always been a sprinter, or have you also tried jumping or other field events?

JACOB NORMAN: [Laughs] I did try the long jump thing. It was going pretty good in middle school. When I was in the seventh grade, I jumped 18 [feet], and when I hit eighth grade I was going 19 [feet]. When I got to high school, I couldn’t hit 20 or 21. Technique, coaching and hitting the board were the downfall of my long jumping career.

JUMP TEXAS: What notable long and/or triple jumpers in the state of Texas are you related to and what are their major claims to leaping fame?

JACOB NORMAN: Ramonce Taylor — that’s my first cousin. I’m also related to Grant Hightower. He goes to the University of Houston.

JUMP TEXAS: What is your most memorable high school sports moment?

JACOB NORMAN: Winning [the 100 meters at the] Texas Relays in 2004 is the most memorable [high school sports] moment [for me]. It was shocking: Took a while for it to sink in. Bradley Reed, who is at Texas Christian University; Adrian Peterson, who is at the University of Oklahoma; and Otis McDaniel, also of TCU, were all in that race.

JUMP TEXAS: What is your most memorable college freshman indoors track and field moment?

JACOB NORMAN: The most memorable [college freshman indoors track and field] moment was in the [Arkansas] Razorback Invitational. I won the prelims in 6.66 and came back in the finals and ran a 6.63. At that time, it was the fastest [60 meters] in the nation, second fastest in the world, and broke the Baylor University record held by Tre Gardner.

JUMP TEXAS: Regarding that 6.66 in the 60 meters ....

JACOB NORMAN: [Laughs] Yeah, I had to hurry up and come out of that real fast.

JUMP TEXAS: How do you mentally prepare for a race? What is your routine?

JACOB NORMAN: My routine is mainly to relax and focus on the beginning of my race. I go through about an hour and a half warm-up; keep my legs loose — head clear; put a smile on my face and keep a good attitude. That’s mainly how I prepare.

JUMP TEXAS: Which college subject is your favorite and why?

JACOB NORMAN: My favorite college subject would be religion. It’s very exciting, intriguing. It’s great to learn and research, to go back in history to view a person’s religion — how it evolved … up to now.

JUMP TEXAS: How does it feel to be the first Central Texan to win an indoors NCAA title?

JACOB NORMAN: It feels real good. I got to give the glory to God on that one. You can’t help but to be excited about it.

JUMP TEXAS: Jump Texas knows you’re a sprinter, but who, in your opinion, is the greatest long jumper, triple jumper, high jumper or pole vaulter — ever?

JACOB NORMAN: Of all times, the best would have to be Carl Lewis.

JUMP TEXAS: What do you think of that 47-foot-9-and-¾-inches triple jump by 14-year-old Killeen High School freshman Omar Craddock?

JACOB NORMAN: I’m like, “Wow!” Who cares about me, a kid that runs 6.56 [seconds in the 60 meters].

JUMP TEXAS: In El Paso there is a high school combination longer jumper/triple jumper, Tina Madry, who is poised to go 20 in the long jump and 40 in the triple jump, what do you think about that?

JACOB NORMAN: Her ability is phenomenal. That’s like someone going 43 [seconds] in the 400 and 9.9 [seconds] in the 100. To have the ability to do that is amazing.

JUMP TEXAS: Share anything else you’d like Jump Texas to know, or something you’d like to say to aspiring scholar athletes.

JACOB NORMAN: Whatever you do, keep it focused. Keep your drive. Don’t lose your goals, running on the track or jumping in the air. Keep your dream alive and don’t ever stop.

LINO MAGAÑA

BELTON — Onlookers near the pole vault competition at Tiger Stadium on Friday, March 24, waited in suspense as Lake Belton Middle School eighth grader Lino Magaña made three spirited attempts to tie a local junior high division record of 12-0.

Magaña, 14, easily cleared a height of 11-feet-6 and garnered a no. 2 all-time city ranking in his specialty before meet officials raised the bar six inches.

The national age-group record of 15-feet-6, set in 2000, is held by Texan Kelly Stephens.

JOSHUA WOODS

COPPERAS COVE — During an Amateur Athletic Association Junior Olympic competition in summer 2005, while only 13 years old, S.C. Lee Junior High School eighth grader Joshua Woods long jumped 19-feet-9¾. His first outdoor jump this year, a 19-foot-2-inch leap into a gusty headwind at the Five Hills Relays, proved as impressive an attempt as the previous year. Most impressive, however, was the perfect score of “4” Woods garnered on the writing section of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), a mandatory state examination for students in Texas public schools.

SAMANTHA HAMILTON

HARKER HEIGHTS — The ostensibly regal title, “Hurdles Queen,” airbrushed in green and black across the front of Ellison High School junior Samantha Hamilton’s track warm-up t-shirt, only revealed half of a one-day, two-part story.

Before an impressive 110-meter hurdles victory in 14.95 seconds at the Knights Relays, Friday evening, March 24, Hamilton covered 38-feet-1 ½ in an early afternoon triple jump contest, writing the first entry on her reign du jour of a field and track in the Central Texas Hill Country.

KEITH LADSON-WILSON

HARKER HEIGHTS — “J” is for jump. “K” is for Killeen, Kangaroo and Keith — Keith Ladson-Wilson, the 18-year-old Killeen High School field events specialist, who posted a class 4A-leading distance of 24-feet-0 in the long jump on Friday, March 24, to garner the varsity title at the Knights Relays.

A 2005 Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympian, who placed fourth in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a distance of 22-feet-8 in the finals of the Young Men’s Division of the long jump, Ladson improved his personal best by 16 inches.He later jumped 6-feet-6 in the high jump for a third place finish.

Ladson will compete in the Kangaroo Relays on Saturday, April 1.

JUMP TEXAS MAGAZINE

TINA MADRY

EL PASO — Parkland High School senior Tina Madry is literally on top of her game. With distances of 19-feet-3 ½ in the long jump and 39-feet-7 in the triple jump, Madry leads class 4A and, respectively, ranks first and second for classes 1 through 5A.

“Last year she was defeated on the last jump at the Region I-4A meet and just missed qualifying for state,” wrote PHS Head Track and Field Coach Al Licon in an e-mail interview with Jump Texas. “This year she has high expectations, hoping to jump over 20 feet [in the long jump] and 40 feet [in the triple jump].”

A 20-40 for the combination jumper Coach Licon describes using the adjectives “hardest working” and “deserving” would prove an impressive and fulfilling prep career cap for Madry, whose list of interested post secondary institutions includes Baylor, the University of New Mexico, South Carolina and New Mexico State.

JACOB NORMAN

HARKER HEIGHTS — Baylor University freshman sprinter Jacob Norman, a native of Temple, clocked the nation’s fastest 60 meters on February 24 with a time of 6.58 seconds. Two and a half weeks later, on Saturday, March 11, Norman lowered his previous time by two-hundredths of a second to earn an indoors title at the National Collegiate Athletics Association Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The 20-year-old sprinter posted an impressive time of 6.56 seconds in the finals of the NCAA 60 meters to edge out a talented field of speedsters, which included Florida State University sophomore Walter Dix (6.62), University of Wisconsin junior Demi Omole (6.64), University of Texas at Austin freshman Jamaal Charles (6.67) and UT senior Trey Griffin (6.69).

Norman returns to competition on Saturday, March 25, during the Dr. Pepper Classic at Hart Patterson Track and Field Complex in Waco, Texas, where he will contest the 100 meters.

OMAR CRADDOCK

KILLEEN — Killeen High School freshman Omar Craddock hopped, stepped and jumped 47 feet, 9 ¾ inches to win the varsity division of the boys triple jump at the Eagle Relays hosted by Ellison High School on Friday, March 10. His attempt proved the furthest horizontal distance in the discipline covered under any conditions by a high school freshman and 14-&-under athlete in Texas history.

In only the second full high school meet of his athletic career, the 14-year-old horizontal bouncer also set a new varsity meet record; eclipsed the former all-time, freshman city best of 45-feet-6 Tobyn Rucker established in 1992; and garnered a no. 1 class 4A state ranking from Inside Texas Track and TEXASTRACK.COM.

Craddock is ranked second overall for classes 1 thru 5A in Texas behind South Grand Prairie senior triple jumper Malcolm Williams (49-feet-6). Craddock began triple jumping one year ago, this month, as an eighth grader at Fairway Middle School. He inched up from a 39-foot-11, district winning jump last April, to a 42-foot-4 gold medal effort in the youth boys division at the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005.