Steph Barnes vaults her way to success

[rainbowgirl28]

http://media.www.spectatornews.com/medi ... 6404.shtml

Senior athlete vaults her way to success
National champion reflects on past track and field seasons
Cassandra Golburg

Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Sara Norgon
Senior Steph Barnes recently won her second Super Six award, and now student coaches cross country.

At the hall of fame banquet on Sept. 15, former athletic director Tim Petermann said senior Steph Barnes would leave UW-Eau Claire as "one of our most decorated student athletes."

At that banquet, she was awarded her second Super Six award in a row for her participation in track and field.

The Super Six is the highest honor given to student athletes at Eau Claire, and it is given to six athletes who have achieved both athletically and academically, according to a press release.

She is a two-time national champion, winning the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in 2005 and the Indoor Track and Field Championship in 2006. She also holds two school records for pole vault, one conference record and was the 2007 WIAC Co-Scholar Athlete for indoor track.

As if all that wasn't enough, Barnes has recently been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

"It's a huge honor to be included with so much talent," Barnes said.

All of these awards didn't come overnight. Barnes has a long history of athletics. She has been involved with track and field for eight years now, and gymnastics since she was eleven. She participated in gymnastics for two years at a college level at Eau Claire. She also student coaches the cross country teams.

Growing up in Sauk City, Barnes has always been interested in gymnastics and sports in general, her mother Shari Barnes said.

"She was always tumbling around the living room, knocking over lamps," Shari Barnes said. "So I took her to a gym and it took off from there."

When Barnes got to high school, the track and field coach was looking for female pole vaulters and recruited Barnes.

"He had heard that gymnasts make good pole vaulters, and he asked me to try out," she said. "My freshman year I said no, but my sophomore year I tried it and I loved it."

She continued through college, adding to the team in a quiet way, Eau Claire track and field coach Chip Schneider said.

"To be honest, you wouldn't have known she's around, she's a really quiet person," he said. "She's not the type to toot her own horn."