“I couldn’t get to sleep (Thursday) night,” Walker said Friday morning from the infield of the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. “I was up all night thinking about today. And then I walked in here, whew, this is way more people than I’ve ever jumped in front of before.”
But Walker put the crowd and her nerves behind her and kept the bar underneath her as she cleared the 5-foot, 3-inch mark to place sixth in Division II.
“I tried to stay relaxed and just enjoy the experience, but I’m also a competitor so I wanted to do the best I could,” Walker said. “My goal was to get on the podium, and I got two spots higher than I had hoped to get. So that was pretty cool.”
Walker missed on her first attempt at 5-0 but easily soared over the bar on her second try. The same thing happened at 5-2. But at 5-3, she cleared it on her first attempt to guarantee a spot on the podium.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Walker said. “The bar wobbled, but it stayed up.”
“That was amazing,” Arrows coach Stefanie Hurley added. “For her to be a freshman and make it to state and place sixth, I’m so happy for her.”
Not only did her first jump at 5-3 assure Walker a placing medal, it saved some spring in her legs for her attempts at tying her personal record of 5-4. She came close on her second try, but her third and final leap resulted in solid contact with the bar that brought her season to a close.
As she climbed off the landing pad, Walker flashed a huge smile at Hurley.
“I didn’t expect to get (5-4),” she said. “I just thought it would be cool if I did.”
Cobb crushed: With the fourth-best qualifying mark in the Division II pole vault, Madison junior Coty Cobb entered the state meet with dreams of a state title.
But he never got a chance to try to match the PR mark of 15-6 he posted at the regional, missing on all three of his attempts at 14-0 to finish in 10th place.
“I’ve got no words,” said Tate Cobb, Coty’s father and vaulting coach. “He knew he could do so much more. His goal coming in was to be on the podium, and maybe on top of the podium.
“I can’t remember the last time he didn’t clear 14,” Tate Cobb added. “It’s a huge letdown for him.”
Semifinal stars: Lakota East senior Autumn Heath was one of a number of area athletes who advanced to today's finals in multiple events as she posted the fastest semifinal time in the Division I 100-meter dash (11.83) and was second-fastest in the 200 (24.48).
Valley View junior Hannah Thomas, who finished second in the Division II 300 hurdles last year in 44.73, is back in the finals after qualifying fifth in 46.09. She also advanced in the 100 hurdles with the sixth-best qualifying time (15.28).
Lebanon sophomore Mikayla Clark stands fifth going into the Division I 400 (56.82), and she teamed with sophomore Hannah Bogaert, junior Abby Fatzinger and senior Erin Robison to qualify seventh in the 800 relay (1:42.90).
And Cincinnati Christian junior Kameron Antwine earned the eighth and final qualifying spot in both the Division III 100 (11.16) and 200 (22.68).
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