The Crimson Crier spoke with three members of the indoor track team who have been ranked in the top 15 in the state in different categories. Freshman Jake Russell is ranked 15th in high jump; Freshman Gabrielle Griner is ranked 6th in pole vaulting; Junior Kelsey Johnson is ranked 11th in triple jump. We sat down with them to talk about indoor track and their events.
Crimson Crier: How did you get involved with indoor track?
Gabrielle Griner: My family has done track before and I didn’t know there was indoor track until my dad told me about it and then I wanted to give it a try.
Jake Russell: When I was eight, I was really fast and my mom just got me into running.
Kelsey Johnson: I’ve loved running since I was little, so when I was in middle school, I kind of wanted to start running track but I didn’t know about anything. So when I got to ninth grade, I was like, ‘Ok, I’m gonna go to someone and ask them about track because I really want to get involved’. So I started running cross country to get train for track, and then track season came around and I did that, and then the next season they were like, ‘You should run indoor track’ and so I was like, ‘Ok’. So I started indoor and so now it’s just cross country, then indoor, then regular track and then summer track. It’s like all year round I run.
CC: When did you first get involved with running track?
GG: I started running track in 7th grade.
JR: I’ve been running since I was eight.
KJ: I started running track in 9th grade.
CC: How did you get into your individual categories?
JR: I got into high jump [at] this meet during the summer at Alabama. You could just do any event and my mom told me I could do whatever event and I really wanted to do the high jump, so I did it, and I won, and I kept doing it.
KJ: My very first meet—it was in 9th grade—my coach signed me up for triple jump without me knowing it. I didn’t know what to do and this boy named Corbin Swain on the team, he taught me how to do the steps and everything and I wasn’t good at it at first, but then at one point it just like clicked with me so then I got all the steps correct.
CC: How do you practice for your individual events?
GG: I have to go to UAH and practice in their gym with one of the vaulters that goes to UAH, because the school doesn’t have a facility for that because it’s really expensive. I go after school twice a week.
JR: We don’t really have a high jump pit [here], so the only time I do it is there, at meets. I do squats to practice.
KJ: [I] sometimes practice here, but we don’t have a sandpit or anything, so sometimes I practice with my steps, but mainly it’s at meets, I guess. I practice on the side.
CC: Do you think you would be able to improve in your individual category if we had the equipment?
KJ: Yeah I definitely would, because over the summer, I ran at James Clemons, not with their school, with a summer team, and they have really good facilities and I was able to go from [jumping] like 29 feet to 32 feet just from being in good facilities and stuff. So, at the meets, I jump like 30 something [feet], but over the summer I was jumping like 31-32 because their facilities are so much better and I could practice my steps easier.
CC: Do you plan to run track throughout high school and maybe even college?
GG: I would like to run track in college.
JR: I plan to run track throughout high school and college.
KJ: I want to continue to run. I want to get a scholarship at Alabama really, really bad. It’s just really hard, because people have told me it’s really hard to get into college with a track scholarship. But hopefully I’ll get in.
CC: Could you explain the triple jump?
KJ: The coach pushes you and whatever you step out on is your dominant leg, so mine’s [my] right. You run and leap off the [dominant] foot and then you leap again, but you land on your [other] foot and then you jump into the sand pit. You run on a runway and there’s these little board things and you have to plant on that or your disqualified. It’s just for that one jump though. You have three jumps.
CC: What is your personal best in your category?
GG: My best is nine feet, six inches.
JR: In high jump, I can jump five feet, four inches
