Dana Jensen Article (CA)

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http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06 ... 205338.txt

Jensen fights back injury to make it to state

By: BECKY FREEMAN - Staff Writer

Dana Jensen's track and field career at Chaparral has ended, but the San Diego State-bound senior has a hunch this is just a beginning.

"I'm just warming up," said Jensen, who got her first taste of track at the end of her sophomore year.

That season, she came out to practice the week before the regular season's final week. Despite just barely picking up a pole, Jensen cleared 8-feet, 6-inches at her first meet.

Jensen has come a long way in her short career. For clearing 12 feet, 3 inches and advancing to the CIF-State Championship this spring, Jensen has been selected as The Californian's All-Valley GirlsTrack and Field Athlete of the Year.

Her almost immediate success did not garner a love of the new sport ---- that came later. After going to former Olympian Jan Johnson's pole vault camp in Atascadero and gaining an idea of vault mechanics, Jensen began vaulting every Sunday with Jim Curran, a coach in Fallbrook.

It was then Jensen knew she had found her calling.

"After going every Sunday, I started to love it," Jensen said. "At first I liked it, but then I was like, ëI love the pole vault.'"

It was an even sweeter find, considering Jensen had lost her first love ---- gymnastics ---- to a back injury after spending 13 years to get to Level 10 in the Southern California Elite Gymnastics Association. But those years did not go to waste, as the gymnastics background prepared Jensen to hit high heights early in her career.

"My back just got too bad, so I had to quit and it was one of the toughest decisions of my life," said Jensen, who took more than a year off before her friend convinced her to try pole vaulting. "But in a way, I was preparing for pole vault."

Her first full season of pole vaulting was her junior year, when Jensen cleared 11-6 and made it to the CIF-Southern Section Finals. At the time, she still felt like a rookie compared to her veteran competitors.

But her senior year was a different story. She went to the Kiss the Sky camp in Arizona in the summer, and then in the fall, Jensen and Chaparral teammate Ryan Utnehmer attended a camp at UCLA staged by Anthony Curran, the Bruins' pole vault coach.

Jensen also got to work in the gym, doing bar drills, pull-ups, and sit-ups.

"When I was in gymnastics, I was the strongest in my life, so I got our old conditioning sheets out and started working," Jensen said. "I didn't want anything to hold me back this year, I wanted to be in the best shape of my life this year."

During that time, Jensen's back pain flared up again and persisted through the season. When she tied for fourth in the elite section of the Arcadia Invite on April 9, she also experienced the most pain she had ever felt ---- even while setting a personal record of 11-9.

"I was not going to quit, because I loved it," Jensen said.

Jensen experienced pain until CIF-SS Finals, when she got an injection into her lower back joints. Only days later, Jensen was pain-free. Later that week, she won the Division I title by clearing 12-0 at CIF Finals.

But Jensen's new pain-free technique actually hurt her in the next week of competition, at CIF-SS Masters. Her normal poles were too small and she was blowing through them ---- meaning they were not giving her enough height ---- and she failed to clear 11-9 on her three attempts.

"I was running faster and my poles just weren't working right," Jensen said. "It was my goal to go to State, and I had worked all season long to go to State, so when I fell down from my third attempt at 11-9, I was in shock."

Still, she had a chance. Jensen was taking her spikes off when an official told her she was in a jump-off. By clearing 11-3 on her first attempt, Jensen tied another vaulter for the fifth and final position to qualify for Sacramento.

Each got one more attempt at 11-9, and when the other vaulter missed first, Jensen got on the runway knowing all she had to do was clear the bar to accomplish a goal she had set at the beginning of the year. She did, and everything that followed in Sacramento was like icing on the cake.

Jensen called it a vacation, but she still worked hard, and cleared 12-3 on the first day of competition to finish in the top nine and qualify for finals on the second day.

Her season ended with an eighth-place finish amongst the most talented group of female pole vaulters the state had ever had. But Jensen's career is far from over, and now that she is free from pain and using bigger poles the sky is the limit.

"After four years in college who knows, it's just the beginning."