Tess Balcomb's flight right on course (CA)

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Tess Balcomb's flight right on course (CA)

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:06 pm

http://www.auburnjournal.com/articles/2 ... alcomb.txt

Balcomb's flight right on course

Colfax senior tunes up for high school season with a win at Run for the Dream
By: Eric J. Gourley, Journal Sports Writer


Sunday, January 27, 2008


Colfax High senior Tess Balcomb took 12th place in the pole vault at the CIF State Championships last June. She's currently ranked sixth in the state after winning the pole vault at the Run for the Dream indoor meet in Fresno last week. Photo by Michael Kirby/Auburn Journal file
Tess Balcomb doesn't pace nervously.

She doesn't have any strange pre-meet rituals.

The Colfax High senior waits calmly, Black Eyed Peas or Britney Spears blaring from her iPod, envisioning the ideal vault.

"I try to relax, but still get enough adrenaline going," Balcomb said. "I visualize going over really high bars, vaulting perfectly."

Her personal-best 12-foot vault at the Adidas Golden West Meet in Folsom last June may have been perfect, but greater accomplishments might not be far off as Balcomb prepares for her final high school track and field season.

She vaulted 11 feet, 4 inches to win her event at the second annual Run for the Dream indoor meet at the Save Mart Center in Fresno last Monday.

Balcomb competed for Central California in the high school dream team championship. Although the team finished last with 63 points behind Southern California (104) and Northern California (139), Balcomb vaulted eight inches higher than her next closest competitor.

Impressive for most, unsatisfactory for the fifth-ranked pole vaulter in the state.

"I wish I would have done a little bit better," Balcomb said. "After 11-4 the next highest was 12 feet. I got close to making my PR, but not close enough."

Run for the Dream was Balcomb's fourth all-comers meet since she resumed competition in late November.

Balcomb takes a six-week hiatus from vaulting after the high school season wraps up in June. Then it's back to bar drills and upper body conditioning in preparation for all-comers meets in November.

For Balcomb, the meets are little more than simulations of the approaching high school season.

It's like a practice meet," she said. "It has a competition feeling, but it's not horrible if you don't win. In a school meet you're going for points. Usually I just get in the mindset of a competition anyway, try to do as well as I possibly can." She's plenty used to that mindset.

As a junior, Balcomb set a Sac-Joaquin Section Division III girls meet record with a vault of 11 feet, 8 inches.

She also took 12th place at the state meet in Sacramento last year with an 11-3 mark, nine days before setting her personal record.

Not bad for a girl who hadn't even considered track and field until she "grew too tall for gymnastics" after nine years on the mats.

At the urging of her father, a former pole vaulter at San Francisco State University, Balcomb went out for the team at Colfax after quitting gymnastics halfway through her sophomore year.

"He'd always wanted me to try it," Balcomb said. "He ended up volunteering, since we didn't have a pole vault coach."

Practicing under her dad's scrutinizing eye initially led to frustration, but she soon saw benefits.

"I'm not withheld from talking back or getting mad at him or yelling at him, but it's nice to have one-on-one talks with him," Balcomb said. "My dad's been really supportive coaching me and actually listening to what I'm saying. He's really dedicated with me to go on to vaulting in college."

Balcomb hopes to continue her athletics and academics at UCSB or the University of Hawaii. She's drawn by beaches and proximity to family in both locations, although her native Aloha State may have the edge.

"We're talking to them right now," Balcomb said.

In the meantime, she still has aspirations to fulfill at Colfax.

"I have the school record, but I'd like to beat that again, to keep going higher," Balcomb said. "Hopefully I'll make state again." Her major goal may sound ironic from an athlete who's earned recognition by distancing herself from the competition.

"At the moment I'm the only girl at Colfax who vaults consistently," she said. "I'd like to get the word going. It'd be nice if there were other girls out here."

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