Vaulting in the Big Leagues

I thought New Englands was my last opportunity to jump for UMass Lowell, until I heard we were hosting a NewBalance Twilight Meet.  My coaches originally told me that they were not including the pole vault–until I received a text message from my coach on Wednesday saying “Women’s vault. 5:30pm. Just you and Southern Connecticut.”

With only 3 female competitors and 3 male competitors, it was a very relaxed and fun meet.  I had to borrow Southern Connecticut’s 12’6″ 130 and felt really good.  I ended up jumping 11ft to break the UML Women’s outdoor pole vault record.  So now I have the indoor record of 11’2″ and the outdoor record with 11′.  It’s a nice way to finish everything up and move on to my next school.

Well, the comical part of this tale is that after New Englands I brought my uniform & warm-ups home and packed them away.  My mom had to bring my uniform to the meet!  This may be getting a little too personal, but I usually wear the briefs issued to us instead of the “boyshorts” because the elastic around the boyshorts cuts into my legs (I don’t know why they call them that because with how tiny they are–boys should not wear them!).  She only brought the boyshorts so I had to wear them.  After the meet I joked saying that I broke the indoor record the first time at Harvard wearing these so now we joke and say they’re my lucky boyshorts!

I’ve also been told that records count until August, so any competitions I do in the summer can still count for the outdoor record.  I set a goal to get 12ft by the end of the year, so knowing that I have extra time sounds pretty good to me.

I have a paper, a final, and a presentation to finish up the semester then I’m done at UMass Lowell.  I’m ready for summer (even though I’m scrambling to find a job!)–but I’m excited to see what’s going to happen next

Well I was hoping I’d have one more week to my freshman year at ECACs but I guess that just wasn’t in the cards for me. I needed to clear 12’2″ yesterday and I cleared 11’10″. I was really upset, but I guess I can’t complain too much about getting 2nd in New Englands as a freshman. I’m trying not to think of all the coulda/shoulda/woulda’s but looking back at the meet yesterday, I wish I had gone to the 13’7″. I was hesitant to because I always change my jump when I go up poles and I was doing really well with the 13′ 155.

Overall, my freshman year didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped height wise. But I know I improved form wise and I got stronger and faster, so I’m trying to stay positive.  I guess I’m just going to have to work hard over the summer and hope that next year it all comes together for some bigger heights.

As far as classes go, I made it out of my first year with a 3.75 GPA which I was pretty happy with. And as far as the social aspect of college goes, I made a lot of really great friends. It’ll be great to go home to see my high school friends and family (and all of you at some Patriot practices!!! ), but I already miss being with my college friends everyday!

Yesterday I competed in my last meet of my “sophomore year”, New England Championships.

I finished 14th overall, with 10’6″ and felt great jumping.  I moved up to a 12’6″ 140, which I actually surprised myself in handling so easily so quickly.  The meet was very relaxed and fun.  I LOVE talking to other vaulters and having everyone come together.  I should probably be more focused and not talk to the competitors, but that would be so mean and boring!  It’s supposed to be fun! It’s great to have all the coaches from other schools too.  I love the atmosphere of New Englands because we all support each other–and I’ve benefited from that many times!  Some of the girls asked me why other teams’ coaches came up and talked to me and asked where mine was, I joked and said, “I’m the foster child of the pole vault.  They’re all my coaches!”  That’s something I’ve always appreciated and felt very lucky to have that support.

But the time has come to move on.  It’s seemingly poetic to end one chapter and start another (I’m such an English major).  I came home to my acceptance letter to my first-choice school.  The reflective sap that I am, I cried.  (I’m sure you’re all so surprised).  It’s not because I regret my decisions, but because it’s real now.  I’m taking advantage of a great opportunity and I’m looking forward to what will happen in the future.  It’s an interesting feeling.  As much as I want to leave and know this is the best decision for me, I can’t ignore the fact that I wouldn’t be the person I am today without my experiences at UMass Lowell.  I have so many memories, good and bad, that I will cherish.  That’s what life is all about: new beginnings.  I know I’m going to be fine.  I have a whole new surge of motivation and determination to focus and succeed even more.

I will be attending UMass Amherst starting in the Fall of 2010.

So I am currently on my way back from VA (it’s a good think Peter Pan buses have free wifi, otherwise I don’t that I’d make it through this 10 hour bus ride!) And well, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped. In fact, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped my entire freshman year. But I’ll just start with this weekend…

So we drove down here on Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday we had quite a bit of free time. We were pretty much on our own other than a light practice on Thursday. I spent most of that free time studying for my anatomy and physiology final. I was supposed to take it on Friday, but obviously I was in Virginia so I had to reschedule. A lot of people took tests at the hotel, but for some reason my professor wants me to take it when I get back. Although, he still hasn’t gotten back to me about exactly when and where which is getting quite annoying. But at least I will be done my freshman year after taking that test. The year really flew by, but I am more than ready for summer to be here! I will miss my friends here at school, but I can’t wait to spend time with my high school friends and family

But anyway, I competed on Friday in 80+ degree weather. I like warm weather but it was just too hot for my liking. I guess that’s better than competing in cold weather, though. I had never been so nervous before a meet in my life. I guess it’s because not only did I want to do well for myself, I wanted and needed to do well for the team. In high school, it didn’t really matter how well I did, my team was still not going to place or anything. I also knew I was seeded 3rd which I wish I didn’t look at because it just put more pressure on me to do well. Plus the last vaulting practice I had went absolutely terribly. I tried not to think about it but I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I only swung up on one jump in warm ups, which added to my nerves. I told Brenner I was nervous and he just told me that nerves can be a good thing. I opened at 11’2″ and missed my first attempt, I didn’t even swing up on it. I very rarely do that in meets, so I was just getting more and more nervous. But then Brenner came over and talked to me. He basically just told me that he wasn’t nervous at all and that he knew I could do it and I just need to let my body do what it knows how to do. That helped me a lot and I cleared my next attempt by quite a bit. Then the bar went up to 11’8″, and I cleared that on my first attempt. Then I switched to the 13’7″ 145 for my attempts at 12’2″ (qualifying for ECACs). I don’t know why but I always completely change my jump when I go to the 13’7″. My first two attempts I didn’t even swing, and well my third attempt, I don’t know that you could even consider that I swing either. So I was even more disappointed that I didn’t even have a decent attempt at the height. I ended up in 4th place. But now I’m in the same scenario I was in for indoors. I need to clear the qualifying mark at New Englands next weekend or my season is over. It worked out for me indoors where qualifying was 11’9″ so hopefully I’ll be able to do it this season also.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day at the meet cheering on my teammates. We ended up with 6th overall which was disappointing but based on the amount of injuries on our team right now, the coaches were still happy with our performances. After the meet a group of us ordered pizza and just hung out in the hotel for the rest of the night. It turned out to be a really fun night. Although waking up this morning to start our 10 hour bus ride home at 8am, I slightly regretted staying up til about 4am doing nothing but talking and hanging out. But I slept for the first 3 hours of the ride and it was great team bonding

Tomorrow I move into consolidated housing for athletes since the school year is technically over (except for me who still has one more final) and most of the dorms close for the summer. I’ll be there for a week or 2 depending on how I do at New Englands.  Then I get to go home for the summer!

Well I guess I should do some studying now. Plus I think that’s enough rambling for now, sorry for the length of this post and the jumbled, random order of topics.  :)

I’m just gonna say it.  Yesterday sucked.

After a long night of fulfilling my RA duties until 2am for Spring Carnival duty the night before (which essentially is the lamest excuse for students to get absolutely trashed and cause problems all over campus),  I was prepared to sleep on the ride to Stonehill College.  I was in the early van at 7am, so that only allowed 4 hours of sleep.  I couldn’t wait to fall back asleep in the van until we found out the athletic department forgot to supply us with the keys.  With no way to get the keys, they started arranging rides.  Of course the biggest problem was “Chrissy’s poles” and for some reason everyone was so stumped by how we would get the poles to Stonehill. “But we don’t have t-shirts to tie them to the car!” “They don’t even fit in the car!” I didn’t see the big deal at all because I have these poles with me almost ALL THE TIME and mentioned that I had bungee cords and I just put them on my roof rack.  Well, they took that and said–”Oh! So you can drive then?”  I strapped the poles to my roof rack, like I do all the time, and kept hearing, “Wow, you’re so prepared.  You do this a lot?” I kind of wanted to turn around and say, “Well, no sh*t, how else am I gonna take them anywhere?”  They seriously just don’t get it.  I drove myself, my poles, and four other people to the meet while trying my hardest not to fall asleep at the wheel.  At least I got gas money (for the first time in my three years here).

After arriving at Stonehill I quickly found a spot on the floor in the field house, curled up to try and sleep.  I kept getting interrupted/woken up by, “Oh, I forgot ____ in your car can I have your keys?”, “Hey, some guy by the javelin was asking for you (jokes).”  Normally, I would not be so snippy–but I was exhausted and just trying to pull myself together to jump.

Needless to say, I only jumped 10ft and placed 4th overall.  I didn’t really care that I didn’t get first, but 10 ft is my lowest height of the season and OF COURSE it had to be at the conference championships.  The day before I had pulled my quad getting a few jumps in before the meet too, so that changed my approach a bit.  I was in so much pain after the meet and I felt like such an idiot tearing up on the in field looking like a sore loser–but I was just exhausted.  Right after the event I fell asleep in my mom’s car because there was no way I was going to be able to drive myself back to Lowell if I didn’t.

I guess the moral of the story is that I haven’t been taking care of myself.  I’m stretched way too thin with all the responsibilities I have to do and it’s just not fun anymore.  I’ve quit almost everything.  I’m done.  I’m completely burnt out. One of my friends said it best, “You wanted to go out with a bang but instead you’re going out with a fizzle.” I’ve been thinking a lot about it and the decisions I’ve made to join so many clubs/jobs/whatever.  I joined these things because I didn’t feel a connection to my school.  I wanted to feel a part of something–a feeling that I should have gotten with just being a student athlete, but I didn’t feel that way.  Wherever I end up, I will ]just be a student athlete–not an RA, not a tutor, not an Orientation Leader, not a tour guide, etc.—and they showed their appreciation for me and valued me and the things I did.  Hopefully I will be a member of a track team at a school that I am proud to represent and they are proud of me to represent them.  It takes two parties to have a relationship and if only one is doing all the work, it eventually just falls apart.

Well, New Englands next week.  I believe I will be there? I’m not sure.  I think I qualified, but it also depends on injuries.  But good luck to everyone with the rest of your season/semester!