Stacy Pierce has learned winning a state championship was a happy ending and a new beginning.
The McHenry senior won the Class AA high jump championship with a personal best of 5 feet 7 inches last spring. With that came a gold medal and the pressure to repeat. This year her championship doesn’t mean anything when she’s approaching the bar.
“It’s a lot different this year,” said Pierce. “I went into last year thinking I have to better myself and to win the state championship. Now, it’s `Wow, I am state champ, I have to repeat.’ ” There is a lot more pressure. When I won the state championship, I thought that would be it. But it’s not it. I have to do it again.”
She’ll get that chance Friday and Saturday in Charleston. She won the Woodstock sectional Friday with a jump of 5-3. She also won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.3 seconds, the 300 hurdles in :46.1 and was part of the 1,600-meter winning relay.
For this season, Pierce, a thin 5-11, realized she needed to do something extra to realize her goal. She needed some muscle. She did something about it, hitting the weights.
Shortly after the state meet last season, she joined a health club and started working out regularly. Pierce works on her calves, stomach and upper body muscles. Her devotion to her training regimen caused her to leave the Warriors’ basketball team this winter.
“There was a conflict,” she said. “I needed to get to the weights. It was just too much. I really buckled down. That’s what I needed to do. I have my speed, I have all those other things. I needed to lift. I was skinny and weak.
“In basketball, we had three-hour practices and it was a little too much for me with homework and weights, too. And getting sleep. I decided track was more important than basketball.”
Just as important as another state championship is a college scholarship. Her state championship has brought some offers, but Pierce wants to show major Division I schools what she can do. She’s looking for a 5-10 jump this year, which should interest more schools.
Her versatility will show college coaches she’s not just a one-event athlete and it will help her team as well. The hurdles also aid her training.
” help her in the high jump,” said coach Bob Ludwigsen. “The 300-meter hurdles are real good for her. She’s tall, has long legs and gets over the hurdles easy. The relay is good for her conditioning. When you keep her in four events–three running and one jump–they complement each other.”
She knows she’s helping herself and the team, despite the work the other events may bring.
“Doing the high jump makes me feel like I’m doing it for myself,” she said. “But I’m a team player as well. If I can do other things, I’m going to. If you train for just one event, it’s kind of a waste.”
Pierce is looking forward to her return to Eastern Illinois’ O’Brien Stadium for the state meet. Not only does Pierce want to defend her state championship, she wants to erase some bad memories in the hurdles.
She qualified in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles last year, in addition to the high jump. Pierce fell in her heat of the 100 hurdles and was scratched from the 300 because of a sore hip.
“I never hit a hurdle before the state meet,” said Pierce, who wants to be a heptathlete in college. “I never even nicked a hurdle. It was so weird. I fell before I got to hurdle. I saw I was getting beat–I was tied for third. I picked up my speed in the middle of the race. I came off the hurdle too fast and my steps were off. I went down before I got to the hurdle. I don’t know how that happened. I couldn’t move one side of my body. It was crazy.
“I was really upset about not being able to run the 300 hurdles. I was really going to go out and get ’em. I was going to go all out. I really don’t like the race but I wanted to do it. It hurt that I didn’t get to finish my last race as a junior.”
So that’s another goal for this season–ending her senior year both at the finish and atop the award stand.
