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celebrating top performances week after week...</h3>
Of all the jumpers in Colorado, perhaps Rebecca Kaiser and Colt Sessions had the most satisfying meets last weekend. Contributed photo/photo by Alan Versaw.
What a weekend for the jump events!
We begin with Rebecca Kaiser, a junior out of Prairie High School, who is proving to be one of the best jumpers ever in the 1A classification. Last weekend she competed at the Weld Central meet and jumped towards some extremely impressive marks.
“It was a really nice day and I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather because you never know with Colorado,” Kaiser said. “I wanted to do as best as I could, and my goals were to go over 16 feet in the long jump and over 33 feet in the triple jump. When I got to the pits and started warming up, I realized I could go much further than that.”
Kaiser ended up jumping much, much further. She shattered her goals for the day, finishing with a 17-1 long jump and 34-3.5 triple jump. She broke the 1A classification record in the long jump and tied it in the triple.
“I really didn’t believe it at first,” Kaiser explained. “My friend called me and said congratulations but I didn’t understand. I knew people had long jumped far before but I didn’t realize those records were broken or tied. My dad looked it up and said I had shattered the long jump record, but it took about a day to sink it. It’s pretty amazing.”
Kaiser also hurdles and sprints but the horizontal jumps are her forte. Kaiser has been present in the Colorado jumping community since her freshman year, but her jumps have drastically progressed over the last few months.
“Last year my dad was encouraging me and told me if I made some sacrifices and focused on my training that I could be really good,” Kaiser said. “I took that to heart and said I wanted to be the best that I can be. I worked harder in the weight room, watched videos, did a lot of drills, all so that I could max my potential and be the best that I could be.”
Kaiser is not only the best she’s ever been, she’s one of the best jumpers that 1A has ever seen. She is taking her craft seriously and accomplishing some impressive marks, but jumping is also a family affair. Her siblings also jump for Prairie and are training partners for Kaiser. “My brother won the state high jump last year, so that was amazing,” she said. “And my sister’s just a freshman and she had a big PR at this meet too. It’s so fun to be able to practice with them and go to meets with them. We’re all striving to be the best we can be and it’s an amazing family activity.”
She’s breaking records and having fun. It’s shaping up to be quite the season for Kaiser. After this weekend, a few of her goals have already been reached, but she still has some business to attend to. “Going into the season I had four goals,” Kaiser said. “I wanted 16 feet in the long jump, 32 feet in the triple jump, I wanted to win the long jump at state, and I wanted to qualify for state in four events. Two of those are accomplished and now I’m continuing to work on the other two.”
A little later in the weekend at the Mullen Invitational, Colt Sessions was dominating in all the jumping events. The senior from Cheyenne Mountain High School went three-for-three last weekend, winning the high jump at 7-0, the long jump at 21-2.75 and the triple jump at 45-4.
“I went in definitely hoping I could win all three, but there were kids who were expected to do better than me and kids ranked right behind me,” Sessions said. “So going in I knew it was going to be more of a hope than a realistic thing. When it actually happened it blew my mind. What a fun day. To be able to go three for three at such a prestigious meet felt really good.”
Sessions walked away from the track on Saturday with three Mullen event titles, field athlete of the meet honors, two new PRs in the high jump and triple jump, and the best mark in the high jump the state has had so far this season--or even in several years. Sessions is the two-time defending 4A high jump state champion, and he is currently leading the 4A rankings by six inches.
“Coming off of last year I was expected to be ahead of the field in high jump,” said Sessions, “so it felt really great to get that height on Saturday. But I have to keep working and post some higher jumps. My competition is going to keep working and doing the same thing. State’s the meet that really counts.”
Ever since he stepped onto the track his freshman year, Sessions has been consistently good and consistently improving. This year appears to be no different--Sessions is at the top of his game. “I really can’t take too much credit,” he said. “It’s been my coaches and their wisdom and my parents and their support. I just go out there and do what they ask me to do.”
When you combine Sessions’ team of support with his huge passion for jumping, it’s not difficult to see why Sessions has had so much success. Sessions loves to jump, and it shows in his performances--he is very good at what he does. If he had to pick one however, high jump will always have special meaning to him.
“I really love the high jump,” he said. “You have to focus on so many aspects to clear the bar. There are so many different phases and they all happen in a split second. It’s so nerve racking, there’s so many different things going on, but I love it.”
So far, Sessions’ senior season is coming together very nicely. Before heading off to study and compete at Duke University next fall, Sessions of course has some final goals in mind. “I want to keep improving in all three jumps and if I could get 7-1 or 7-2 in the high jump I would be thrilled,” said Sessions. “At state, if I can give it my all, give everything I’ve got, then that would be my goal. I just want to do things to the best of my ability.”
For proving to be two the best jumpers in the state right now, Colorado Track XC honors Rebecca Kaiser and Colt Sessions as the athletes of the week. Congratulations to both of them on their outstanding performances this weekend.