STATE TRACK: Gold standard

SW-G' sJorgensen goes to new, historic heights

By CHRIS JOHNSON, Assistant Sports Editor
DES MOINES — The ride to the state long jump championship was smooth for Jennifer Jorgensen.

It’s the ride home that might be a little rocky.

With her third consecutive long jump title in the books — a Class 1A record — Jorgensen officially passed her father Mike for number of career state golds.

Ask Mike about it, though, and the discussion turns into debate.

‘‘We were arguing about it on the way down,’’ Jennifer smiled. ‘‘He said that indoor titles should count. ‘‘I’m sure he’ll come up with some excuse for this one.’’

In her final season of track, the Pacific basketball recruit was more laid back than ever when she entered the pits.

‘‘It’s more relaxing each time out,’’ Jorgensen said. ‘‘It was a little different this year, with some of the girls moving up a class.’’

Nobody even came close to Jorgensen on Thursday. She topped her own meet record with a leap of 18 feet, 7¢ inches on her second jump of the prelims. Jorgensen crushed her previous meet record of 17-10.25 (2007) by more than nine inches.

‘‘It feels really good (to win another state title),’’ Jorgensen said. ‘‘I always want to end with my best jump and I did.

‘‘I was really motivated for that second jump.’’

After her first attempt, Jorgensen looked up at her dad and had a discussion. Whatever they talked about must have worked, because the meet record followed.

‘‘Usually I look at him and he tells me how far to move to move,’’ Jorgensen said. ‘‘I wanted to know what the second girl did and he didn’t understand me.’’

Five of Jorgensen’s six jumps were better than second place finisher Mackenzie Small of Hinton (17-02.5). Jorgensen had jumps of 17-10.75, 17-07, 17-06.5, 17-05 and 17-01.

This title meant a little more to Jorgensen, as her grandpa was able to make the trip from Arizona for the event.

‘‘It was really cool to have my grandpa back,’’ Jorgensen said. ‘‘It was really nice for him to come down to see me.’’

With three gold medals already in the bag, there may be more coming on Saturday. Jorgensen will run in the finals of the 100 and 200 meter dashes. She grabbed the fastest time in the 100-meter dash with a qualifying time of 12.62. The 400-meter champion, Sara Stoakes of North Tama, was second in 25.69.

Jorgensen was third in the prelims of the 200, after winning her heat. Her qualifying time was 26.30. Stoakes (25.69) is first and Alex Gochenour of Logan-Magnolia (25.84) is second.

Running in the sprints is a different beast for Jorgensen.

‘‘It will be a little different,’’ Jorgensen said. ‘‘They don’t announce your name in the long jump when you compete.’’



Contact Chris Johnson at (515) 573-2141, or by e-mail at sports@messengernews.net'>sports@messengernews.net'>sports@messengernews.net'>sports@messengernews.net