Date posted online: Thursday, March 29, 2007
Injury won't keep Marian's
Gergel from eyeing a state pole vault title
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GIRLS TRACK | SEASON
PREVIEW | MARIAN CATHOLIC'S MELISSA GERGEL
She was a Junior Olympic pole vault champ last
summer.
A three-time state qualifier, she finished
second in last year's Class AA state meet. And the athlete who bettered her
effort in
Then with a scholarship to
All was perfect until early February, when the senior pulled a hamstring in
her right leg.
"She was right on the edge of one very big jump when she got hurt," said Tim
Johnson, Gergel's pole vault coach.
The always-cheerful Gergel has a change of voice
when she talks about being unintentionally grounded.
"It's very frustrating," Gergel said. "I've been
waiting all year for track season and now that it finally is here, it stinks
that I can't do anything."
Gergel has not vaulted since then, but
anticipates being back for the outdoor season. In fact, she may try to
compete in Saturday's Illinois Top Times indoor meet in
"She can go half-speed and beat anybody in the state," Johnson said. "We'll
just have to wait and see how she does. She can win it with just one jump."
While Gergel has her eye on a return trip to
"Right now, I am just trying not to think so much about it because it
frustrates me," Gergel said. "(The state meet
is) always in the back of my mind and it is definitely my goal. I just want
to jump high."
Gergel went 12 feet, 6 inches last year at the
state meet and is the school record holder in the pole vault. She went a
personal-best 13-2 1/4 at the Junior Olympics.
Gergel spends time working out at a local health
club and doing a lot of pole vault drills. One involves a pole attached to
the wall on which she hangs, while another
features Gergel contorting her body into an "L"
and doing push-ups on parallel bars that are on the floor.
"They're a little goofy," Gergel said of the
drills. "If someone didn't know track, they would be completely confused."
There is no confusing Gergel's strong classroom
work and her involvement in many activities, including the school's
Kairos and service programs. She helped set up a
carnival for local Catholic school kids at Marian, and last summer
Gergel went to Appalachia to help dig a ditch
for plumbing and build a wheelchair ramp.
"You realized that you could help so much more people,"
Gergel said. "Hard work? Definitely, it
was manual labor, but I'd rather be doing something for somebody and help
people. You don't realize how lucky you have it.
"Even though they did not have everything we would want, they are happy and
appreciate things more than anyone I know."
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