By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
MOORE – At the start of the season, Kyla Davis’ first goal was to clear 12-feet.
The Yukon sophomore achieved that goal not once, but five times and with two years remaining in her high school career, the sky is now the limit.
Davis not only cleared 12-feet to set a personal best, but she broke the Oklahoma State Track and Field Championships meet record in winning gold medal in the class 6A state meet. And, she set the record once, then broke it again.
Davis cleared 12-9 to win the gold medal in a runaway. She had cleared 12-1 earlier to set the state meet record, then went eight inches higher.
She had three good attempts at 13-feet, two-inches, but saw the bar slip off each time.
“I’m so proud of my teammates and myself for doing as well as I did,” Davis said. “It was a good meet. I just incredibly happy and excited that I set the record. Going for it, I was thinking to go as hard as I can and do my best. And, if I don’t make it, I still did my best and would be happy with that.
“I went for 12-9 to raise the state meet record and to push my personal record before I went for the state record,” she said. “It is a great feeling to set the record twice and means you had a good day. You can always leave with a smile after that.
“The second attempt at the state record I felt close. I did have more in me to get at the top of my jump. I probably needed a bigger pole, but we will get there.”
With 21 vaulters in the competition, it did take some time for Davis to even enter the competition. She did not come in until the bar was raised to 10-6 and by that time, most of the field was out of the competition. She won the gold at that height since no one vaulter cleared the mark.
She passed at 11-0, cleared 11-6, then cleared 12-1 and followed that with a 12-6.
“The wait didn’t really bother me,” Davis said. “I looked at as a rest and I tried not to think about it much. I stayed focused the whole time and blocked out most things around me.
“There were a few left at 10-6 when I came in and that allowed me to get more into a rhythm when I started jumping,” she said.
Yukon did go in looking for a 1-2-3 sweep in the pole vault. But, it didn’t work out quite that way. Maycie Reed finished fourth at 10-0 and Kenadi Hamilton was ninth at 9-6.
“Our goal was to finish in the top three,” Davis said. “They have helped me so much. Just them being there helped keep me in a good attitude. Had they not been there, my thought process might be completely different.
“My main focus from here on out is to keep woring and getting better. My main focus is technique first off and then getting on bigger poles. I’ll be competing in a few meets over the summer.”
The Millerettes had qualified only two events to state, but head coach Rod Zimmerman felt his team had a good season.
“We were really happy with the way our girls competed at the state meet,” Zimmerman said. “Kyla has vaulted well all year, the entire vault crew has really vaulted well and have been a dominant force from meet to meet. They put in a lot of work and it was good to see that pay off for them, just getting into that state meet isn’t a given in an event like the pole vault you can easily have a bad day.
“Kenadi didn’t have the full results we had hoped for, for her but she has been back and fourth clearing 9-6 to 10-0 pretty much meet,” he said. “She had trouble at 10-foot and if she could have cleared it she may have made the medal stand. Either way we are proud of her, she had a great season and was part of a great group.
“I’m Really proud of Maycie also. She probably had less time vaulting then the others this year but still put together a great season and made the medal stand in fourth place.
“Kyla is kind of special in this event vaulting higher than most vaulters are going to get to in their career and she is only a sophomore. She is pretty competitive and even competes with herself to reach higher vaults. Kyla is our first state champion since 2002. Thats pretty good for a girl I met in the hall as a seventh grader and suggested she try pole vault. I am really glad that she and her parents wanted to give it a shot. That is probably the key to the success all three vaulters have had the past few years is that they all have tremendous family support.”
We were all really happy with our 4×400 team, when the year started we weren’t thinking about the state track meet with this relay team. They started the outdoor season running 4:30 and at one point ran a 4:38. At the state meet they ran a 4:15, Rayburn, Downing, and Reyes all three ran their fastest splits of the season and Allen ran hard on the last leg. I am really pleased with how much they have worked this year and how much they improved.
