Last weekend, my fourth and final track season started. The past three seasons have been rough for me, as I haven’t had the best of luck at staying healthy and competing well, so I am hoping this will finally be my time. I had foot surgery this past fall to remove a fractured bone and sat out for 3 months so I feel a bit behind in my training, but it’s a long season and I have time to improve.
Our first meet (last weekend) was the Claremont Relays, where I cleared a height for the first time in my four times competing there. While I only vaulted 13’6″, it was still a relief finally starting a season off with a clearance. This weekend, we competed at the Long Beach Classic at Cerritos college, but the rest of the USC pole vaulters and I all had off days and didn’t clear a height. This season, we will be competing in prestigious meets such as the Cal-Nevada Championships, Mt. SAC Relays, and Texas Relays. Additionally, USC will host 2 meets this year – the annual Trojan Relays and the USC-UCLA dual meet. The Trojan Relays will be an exiting meet because we are hosting a few of the nation’s top track programs, including Oregon, Texas A&M, and BYU. Oregon and A&M have extremely fast sprinters, and BYU has some great (18’+) pole vaulters, so I am looking forward to competing and watching my team compete.
My goals for this season are to finish the season healthy and compete in every meet (something I have never done before). I would like to be able to beat my high school personal best of 15′, but I realize that being behind from my surgery and just dealing with other injuries in general may prevent this from happening. When it comes down to it, I just want to compete for my school and have fun doing it.
