Azaria Lewis in pole position (CA)

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Azaria Lewis in pole position (CA)

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Wed May 14, 2008 2:56 pm

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/sports/ci_9255177

Pole position

Benicia's Lewis looks to shake pressure in major meets
By DAN NIED/Times-Herald sports writer
Article Launched: 05/14/2008 06:33:04 AM PDT


Benicia High senior Azaria Lewis is competing at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II track meet today in Sacramento. (Stacey J. Miller/Times-Herald)
Pressure shouldn't be part of this equation.
College is figured out, her grade point average is hovering around 4.0, and she understands her sport so well that she is already teaching it to underclassmen.

No need for pressure because, no matter what happens in the next three weeks, she'll still have her spot on the UC Davis track team next year, and she still knows she'll major in human development, with an eye on one day becoming a pediatrician.

So Azaria Lewis should just go out there today at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II meet at Bella Vista High School and attack the pole vault. She should just clear the 10-foot-7 mark that will automatically qualify her for next week's SJS Masters meet, go on home and keep practicing with


Benicia's Azaria Lewis has set her sights on making the CIF State meet in the pole vault. (Stacey J. Miller/Times-Herald)
an eye towards the CIF state meet in Los Angeles.
It should be just as easy as that.

But when the pressure isn't there from the outside, it might become stronger from within.

Azaria Lewis is smart. The Benicia High senior has a 3.902 cumulative grade point average, and earned a 4.25 GPA last semester while taking physics at Solano College. She's eyeing up a 4.5 this semester, planning on saying goodbye to high school with an academic bang. She chose UC Davis over the University of Hawaii more for its pre-med program than its track program.

Lewis is athletic. Her statuesque 5-foot-8, 140 pound frame is perfect for the pole vault. She's got a sprinter's speed, a thrower's power, a gymnast's body control and a brand of aggressiveness

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that is all her own. She slams that pole down and lifts herself up gracefully, and then does her magic trick around the crossbar, twisting her body into a variety of positions in order to avoid contact, and free-falling to the pad below.
The prospect of clearing that bar creates passion within her. And with passion comes anger and a large amount pressure. And with a senior year in which, in her eyes, she's fallen short of her goals, Lewis has built up her own expectations.

"Last year I hit 11 feet, so that means (this) season is going to be 12, 13," she said Tuesday. "But I didn't, and I was wondering what I am doing wrong. I am so dedicated. Weight training, or training in the summer. Everything I could have done, I've done. So I'm searching for reasons why. I guess I just have to let it happen. It's probably just pressure on myself."

She's nervous about today, because it is the first time she'll face real competition in a meet that could either extend or end her season. She breezed through this round last year, making it to the Masters meet, but falling short of the state meet. Logical progression dictates that, with an extra offseason of training and an extra year of practice, Lewis would be a cinch for the state meet this year. But she looks at her 11-foot-3 personal record this year, and sees that she isn't where she thought she would be.

Though pole vault is a fickle sport, sometimes dependent on wind conditions and personal feelings, Lewis is almost a lock to get past the Division II meet today and into the Masters. In order to do so, she must finish in the top six overall, or clear that 10-7 mark, something she should have no problem doing.

But sitting in the pole vault pit on a hot and sweaty Tuesday at Benicia High, Lewis admitted her anxiety about today's competition and the two bigger meets that might follow.

"I'm really nervous for these last three meets, I just hope everything works out, right?" she said. "I know I am probably going to stress myself out. Hopefully, by the end of the three meets, I'll at least get 12 feet. If I don't, I am going to train so hard. I mean, I am going to train hard regardless, but it's just going to be incentive to train even harder"

The internal pressure is understandable because Lewis has unlimited potential in her event. Her body type, athleticism and strength make her a natural. But as her chances to shine dwindle, she feels it is time to start putting up the stats of the elite pole vaulters in California. That's why her goal is to make the state meet this year. And that's why, she says, once she gets there, the pressure will be off.

"Because you made it to the top, right?" she said. "So it's just a matter of what you do."

In his 10 years at Benicia and 21 years total coaching the pole vault, Steve Thomas sees something special in his current pupil. It's her understanding of the sport that sets her apart. It's her ability to pick up intricacies on takeoff, and her willingness to study other athletes and modify her own approach.

Thomas has never had a vaulter who, while still in high school, could teach her teammates the sport.

And those kids listen to her, Thomas said. She might be their peer in school, but she's an authority on the vault. Lewis carries herself with a confidence around the pit, often looking like she knows more about the sport than anyone she's competing against.

Probably because she does.

Thomas says she has taught him to be a better coach, that she has enlightened him to different ways of approaching the sport.

"Azaria has developed some of the technique in the takeoff that has given me a fresh way of looking at it," Thomas said. "She has not only learned the event better than any athlete I have had, she has taken it to a level where she knows how to teach it."

She talks about one day coaching the sport, how she might like to try her hand at getting more minorities involved in an event that isn't usually the first choice among African-American track athletes.

"There aren't a lot of kids of color," she said. "When you see pole vault, you don't think 'black vaulters.' It's a rarity, and it's something I would like to see more of. People aren't introduced to it. They might have potential but might not know it because they haven't been introduced to it."

But first she has her own success to worry about. And it starts today with a do-or-die meet that has her worried. But if all goes according to plan, Lewis will move on to the Masters, where her season ended last year.

And then, if she breaks through the pressure to do what she knows she can do, she'll move on to the state meet.

And it is in Los Angeles where the internal pressure will subside, and she can stop worrying about her heights and her opponents.

Because, after all, at that point she will have made it to the top, so it's just a matter of what she does.

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