Saturday, Apr. 19, 2008

Raising the bar: Ferris' McNamee wants to jump 6 feet today at Pasco Invite

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

Kelly McNamee finds it a rush to jump over something as tall as she is.

"It's really nervewracking to know that you're doing that, but it's really exciting once you do it," said McNamee, a 5-foot-10 Ferris senior who has accomplished the feat twice -- winning last year's 4A state high jump title and earlier this year at the Ray Cockrum Invite in Wenatchee.

"When you look back on it, you don't even know how you did that. But when you watch it on video, it's like watching yourself floating through air."

McNamee was the first Washington girl in five years to clear 5-10. She now has her sights set on becoming only the fourth jumper in state history to go over 6 feet -- she barely missed on her third attempt at that height at the Cockrum Invite.

She hopes that day is today at the 47th annual Pasco Invitational, on the same Edgar Brown Stadium runway where she first cleared her height.

"It usually takes her a couple of meets to look at a height, to attempt it and get the feeling that she can make it," said Saxons coach Dave Von Bresthorst. "I have no doubt that it's in her."

But Von Bresthorst had plenty of doubts about McNamee when he first sized her up as a freshman three years ago.

McNamee was part of an alliterative trio of ninth-graders to join the program that year -- along with Katie Davis and Kelsey Adams -- and if you were to have pegged her for future stardom, you would probably have been alone.

"She wasn't the most athletic girl coming out for track and field," Von Bresthorst recalled. "She was a C-squad soccer player. When she and Katie came down to the track over the summer and did some workouts with us, I saw Kelly as just this girl tagging along with Katie."

McNamee mostly concentrated on the hurdles back then. "I did the high jump, but I wasn't very good at it," she said. "In eighth grade, to be honest, I couldn't get over 4-4."

The only reason she even kept at the high jump as a freshman was because her best friend, Davis, did it. McNamee muddled along her first couple of meets, and then the first league meet back from spring break, on her home track, something clicked.

"All of a sudden, I pulled out a 5-5," McNamee said. "That was the turning point."

Von Bresthorst could see a transformation -- one that was cemented at regionals when she nearly bombed out at 4-10, only to clear it on her third try and go on to qualify for state.

"One of the things that Kelly struggled with was her confidence level," he said. "If she doesn't make it to state (as a freshman) and goes out at 4-10, that's a huge confidence drop going into next year. Once she believed that she could do it, she started having the success she's had."

She ended up finishing third at state that year, and as a sophomore she won the Pasco Invite title and again placed third at state.

She was unable to defend her Invite title last year because of a back injury that sidelined her for about three weeks, but she came back to sweep the district, regional and state titles.

"She now sees herself as the great athlete that she is," Von Bresthorst said. "And now she's getting the younger girls to believe in themselves. And she can relate, because even while she's doing these amazing things, she didn't fully believe in herself at one time. It's real genuine."

But McNamee is more than just a high jumper. She has continued to be a top hurdler -- she placed sixth at state last year in the 100-meter highs -- and added the long jump to her repertoire this year, although not without trepidation.

"I suffered a ruptured spleen in eighth grade doing the long jump," she said. "Even now, when I jump, I'm scared something is going to happen."

Her versatility helped win her a track scholarship from the University of Washington, where she hopes to study either exercise physiology or biology (she sports a 3.7 GPA). She also ran cross country in the fall and plays violin for the school orchestra -- she has qualified for next weekend's state finals at Central Washington University with her quartet and chamber groups.

With all those pulls on her time, it's hard sometimes for her to concentrate on soaring to new heights.

"It's hard to balance everything, music and sports and school," she said. "And at meets, my focus hasn't been 100 percent on the high jump. Especially at league meets, I'll jump as high as I need to or have time for. Then I have to focus on my other events. I usually have a busy schedule."

That's why she's looking forward to today's meet, where despite being in four events (she's also in both hurdles races and the 4x400), things are a little more spread out, a little less hectic.

"I really want to go out at Pasco and at least get another 5-10," she said. "My (left) ankle has been a little gimpy this week, but I want to go out and see what I can do."

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