Championship caps remarkable prep experience

By Bill Cain

bcain@wataugademocrat.com

GREENSBORO — She made it look easy all day.

Saturday’s NCHSAA 4-A Track and Field Championships were highlighted by many outstanding performances, but the ease with which Sallie Gurganus climbed

Sallie Gurganus stands at the top of the awards stand following her victory in the pole vault at the state meet. Photo by Bill Cain

to the top of the awards podium for the fifth time in her high school career was one of the best.

Three outdoor state pole vaulting titles and two indoor titles now litter the Gurganus household.

To earn her fifth title in three years, Gurganus needed to go as high as 11-feet, 6-inches. No other athlete in 4-A competition could go higher than 11-0. To reclaim the outdoor state record across all classifications, she would have to best 12-0, the mark set Friday by Ragsdale’s Caitlin Thornley.

With Thornley watching from the coaches’ bench, Gurganus hit 10-6, 11-0, 11-6 and then 12-1 with just one attempt at each. Not one miss.

However, she just barely squeaked over 12-1 on that first attempt.

“It was a little nerve-wracking because I felt the bar on the way over,” Gurganus said. “But it was really great since that’s what I’ve been going for all season.”

Watauga jumps coach Daniel Isaacs said it was a long time coming for his top vaulter. Gurganus had been stuck in the 11-foot to 11-10 range for too long.

“I’m more relieved than anything,” Isaacs said. “It’s been one of those deals where she should have done it but never has done it. I’m relieved, but I’m also pretty excited about it, not just because it was a state record but because she was able to accomplish something she knew she could do.”

With the state title and record in the bag, there was one last thing left unsettled. Earlier in the season, Thornley had jumped 12-4, going higher than any girl in the history of the state, but not at the state meet.

Maybe one day the state will figure out a way to allow jumps before the state meet to count toward state records, especially if they are video taped, as this jump was, but that day has not yet arrived.

Still, Gurganus wanted 12-5. Call it bragging rights, call it the desire to simply be the best, call it close.

On Gurganus’ final attempt at 12-5, she nearly pulled it off. She and Isaacs had decided to move her grip up on the pole and it resulted in her best jump of the day.

That one height didn’t happen for Gurganus Saturday, but she said it was still a good meet for her and she knows she’s got at least another four years of competition ahead of her at the University of South Carolina.

“I definitely should have had 12-5, especially on my last jump,” she said. “But it’s been really good. Hopefully, we’ll go to nationals this summer and see how that goes. It’ll be sad to leave, but South Carolina is going to be awesome.”

Now that she has a successful attempt at 12-1 under her belt and a near miss at 12-5, Isaacs said Gurganus should continue to go that high and excel.

“A lot of times, those numbers — 10-feet, 11-feet, 12-feet — they’re always barriers,” he said. “Now that she’s over it, I see her jumping 12-feet consistently all the time.”