Willliams - KS 2A 3 time state champ

[KCEric28]

http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2010/jun/09/career-spent-vaulting-new-heights/

WICHITA — For the first time in her high school career, Keegan Williams entered the 2010 Kansas Track and Field State Championships not as the number one qualifier.

A frustrating regional performance a week earlier saw the Maranatha Academy senior clear just 9 feet, 6 inches.

Still, by the time the state meet was finished, Williams ascended the awards stand as the Class 2A pole vault state champion for the third year in a row — and she soared higher than ever before.

Williams won her fourth state medal, third straight state championship and broke the state record twice.

“It was huge,” Williams said of the record, “because the lower heights you know you’re going to make, but the state record … that’s what you think about; you think ‘getting your picture in the (meet program), that would be awesome!’ It was really cool to do it.’”

It was a fitting ending to a high school career where Williams has constantly strived to raise the bar.

Williams began her freshman season at Maranatha with dreams of becoming a state champion. Thanks to an agreement between Maranatha and Shawnee Mission Northwest, Williams was able to train with the Cougars and coach Eric Peters. She benefited quickly from the talented SMNW vaulters that surrounded her, and they quickly took her under their wing.

“We have definitely adopted her into the Shawnee Mission Northwest team,” Peters said, “and I think it’s been back and forth that they’ve kind of adopted us. She’s an extremely hard worker. She’s one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever had.”

Williams was a quick learner.

Technique-wise and knowledge-wise, she’s basically like an extra coach out there,” Peters said. “She knows so much; she knows what to do. There’s a lot of girls that can’t do that, so that’s the best coaching tool that I have is to have a girl who can go vault like that.”

After a strong showing at regionals she entered state as the number one seed as a freshman. When she got there, however, frustration set in as Williams struggled in the spotlight and finished sixth.

“My freshman was not so good,” she recalled. “I think I got every height on my third attempt.”

Williams cruised to the state title as a sophomore, and she won another championship as a junior, but her bid for a state record came up short when she missed all three tries at 11-1. She went home happy with her title defense, but disappointed that she was unable to break the record.

As a senior, one goal was on Williams’ mind: break the state record.

She started the year strong and hit personal records early in the season, but things turned sour in the final two weeks leading up to state. In an event that may be more mental than physical, Williams began to stumble. She struggled at regionals — by her standards — and headed to Wichita as a regional champion well off of her A game.

Even the pre-state practice didn’t go well.

“(On Friday) we went and practiced a little bit and every single time I ran through, I couldn’t go up, and so it was all in my head,” she said.

Williams took some advice from Maranatha track coach Bernie Zarda to heart, however, and on Saturday morning she was determined to achieve her goals.

“My coach told all of our runners to dedicate your race to somebody. He was like ‘when you get to that point where it hurts, if you’re just running for yourself it’s so easy to let up. But if you’re doing it for someone else and you know that you’re running for them, it gives you extra,’” she said. “I don’t usually have a lot of pain, so I hadn’t really thought about dedicating it to someone. Just not being able to go up and stuff, it was kind of cool to just dedicate it to all my coaches — some of them stay with me until 10:30 at night vaulting, and my parents — my mom got up at like 5 this morning to braid my hair, and she deals with me when I’m a diva — and so it was cool because I was like ‘I’m not going to not go up, because these people have given me everything. If I bite it, I bite it, but I’m going up.”

Williams’ dedication paid off. With her family, friends and coaches urging her on from the stands, she cleared 9-6, 10-0 and 10-6 on her first attempts. By that point she was the only competitor left and a third state championship was guaranteed.

Now for that state record.

Williams knocked off the bar at 11-1 on her first attempt, but on the second she glided over it and dropped to the mat with a grin on her face.

The bar was raised to 11-4, and Williams cleared it on her third try, triggering another roar from the crowd and a glowing celebration from Williams as she received hugs and high-fives from Peters, teammate Bethany Bailey and the meet officials running the vault.

From there, Williams attempted 11-8. She barely grazed the bar on her final try, but knocked it to the ground.

“We battled through some things this week, and at the end of the day true champions always show up at the big-time, so she definitely showed up,” Peters said. “Even her last vault at 11-8, I’ll bet you that would’ve been a 12-4 vault if the standards had been right and her steps had been on.”

Williams will get another shot at raising the bar next year. She is headed to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz., and plans to pole vault.