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Jones seeks repeat state title, but clearing 14-0 would be even better

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Katie Jones enters states fresh off setting the state pole vault record at 13-7 last week at districts.

South Williamsport’s Katie Jones is never satisfied with how she performs in the pole vault. No matter what height Jones clears, she’s thinking about the next height and going even higher.

That was the South Wil­liamsport senior’s mindset on Saturday at Williamsport High School after she won a district gold medal — her fourth consecutive — with a state-record setting vault of 13 feet, 7 inches.

As she got off the podium with the gold medal draped around her neck, Jones automatically looked at her next goal: 14 feet.

“It means I’m back, I’m ready to go,” Jones said of winning district gold at 13-7 on Saturday. “I’m ready to get 14. I’m right where I was at indoor season. It sets me back, but I’m going higher.”

The scary thing is for the field of pole vaulters at the state meet at Shippensburg University is that Jones easily can go higher than 13-7. And she herself is confident she can hit 14-0, perhaps even possibly a bit more than that.

Since she won district gold as a freshman, Jones just continues to get better and go higher. She won the 2014 meet with a state-qualifying height of 10 feet, 6 inches. She hit 11-0 in 2015, cleared 12-9 last year in the rain and last week, hit her record-setting vault of 13-7.

And now that she has the record, she wants to increase it and is looking forward to attempting it at the state meet on Saturday.

“I had a lot of head height over 13-7. It was just I was pretty tired,” Jones, who will compete at Penn State, said. “I’ll have more adrenaline next week because it’s state, it’s Shippensburg. You have all those people there. You compete on Saturday, which is awesome because seats are full. It’s finals day, it’s awesome.”

Jones is the current Penn­sylvania record holder with her 13-7 vault on Saturday. The official National Federation Track and Field record is held by Morgan LeLeux of New Ibena Catholic High School in Louisiana, at 14 feet, 2 3/4 inches, who set it in 2011. She became an All-American college pole vaulter at Georgia.

Jones is the only vaulter in Pennsylvania — be it Class AA or AAA — that has successfully cleared 13 feet this year.

And only two other competitors — both in Class AAA — have gotten past 12-6 and that’s James Coughlin’s Madisyn Hawkins (12-7 1/2) and Laurel Highlands Cassandra Phelan (12-9 1/2).

Jones enters Saturday’s field with the highest seed mark of 13-7. The second-best is Wilmington’s Julia Strobel, who cleared 11-9 at the District 10 championships. Jones’ friend, Loyalsock’s Hailey Zurich, is seeded fourth, behind Towanda’s Ally Tama.

Jones is without question the favorite to win a repeat gold medal, but Jones wasn’t automatically looking ahead to states. She knew first she had to qualify at districts if she wanted to even be able to defend her title in the first place.

“The pressure? I don’t think it gets to me, but it could,” Jones said.

If any pressure has gotten to Jones this year, it doesn’t show at all. She has the collective calmness as she approaches the runway that you would see from Tom Brady as he’s about to lead a game-winning, two-minute drive.

Jones wanted to hit the state record last week at districts and get it out of the way, so to speak, so she can focus on going even higher at Shippensburg.

“I wanted to break the state record. I wanted that really bad and now I just want to go higher,” Jones said. “So (at districts) it’s really about a confidence boost.”

Jones is one of five girls from District 4 that will be represented at the state meet, joining her friend Hailey Zurich of Loyalsock in addition to Towanda’s Ally Tama, Central Columbia’s Emma Padner and Warrior Run’s Rylie Mong.

“The more District 4 people we get, the more friends I have there,” Jones said. “The more District 4 looks strong because we are strong. There’s some more people here (at districts) that I think could have cleared 10-6 (to qualify), but it just didn’t work out.”

Jones already is one of the most decorated female track and field athlete to come out of South Wil­liamsport as the school’s lone gold medalist, boys or girls, since at least 1973. PIAA championship records aren’t available prior to 1973.

But she can further cement her status as one of the area’s best in recent memory.

If Jones does win another gold, she’d become just the sixth area girl to win at least two individual gold medals at the state meet since 1973. She would join Williamsport’s Ruby Radocaj (two gold medals) and Rachel Fatherly (two); Lewis­burg’s Jill Snyder (four); Wil­liamsport’s Leaha Walker (five) and Lewisburg’s Kalyn Fisher (three).

Jones placed fourth as a sophomore in the 2015 state meet and as a freshman, just missed reaching the podium when she finished 10th.

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