Warhawks' Jones claims 1A high jump title

DES MOINES -- This year was the year for Lexi Jones.

She went from a runner-up finish to a tie for third in her sophomore and junior seasons, respectively, in the Class 1A high jump.

Her senior year, the title was all hers.

"I can't even tell you how great this feels," Jones said. "It's a great feeling. Just the chance to go down to state: It might be hot, it might be raining. The energy, you feel it everywhere.

"You can feel it in the crowd, in the people down here, with all of the officials. The energy here is just crazy, it's honestly how a lot of us do well here is how much the screaming, the yelling and cheering for us. It gives us more adrenaline to keep going."

Jones hit all heights easily on her first attempt: 4-feet-9, 4-11, 5-1 and 5-3 before missing all three at 5-5.

Even still, she wasn't aware the title was hers until her jumps coach Mark Twedt told her so.

"I didn't really realize that I had gotten the state title until my coach was like, 'hey, turn around, look at me. You just won.' That's when all the tears came."

After she went out with the three misses, the cheers from the West Fork crowd arose and Jones pointed toward them then joined them for a hug.

"(Central Decatur's) Emma (Atwood) didn't get it (5-5) and I didn't get it, either, I knew that I had won and I pointed toward them as if to say, 'hey, this is what we've all worked for. We were all in this together.' It wasn't just me, my coach, Twedt, coach Sears, all of my family, the supporters out here.

"The whole school, they are a huge impact on me, too, the cheering. Knowing that they all believed in me really kept me going as well. I'm just going to miss this."

And Jones had a late start to the season with a knee injury, but she recovered well despite some doubts.

"Once you have an injury, that always tugs at the back of your head, you may be at your best, you don't know what's going to happen," Jones said. "It has played its trick on me, I think, 'oh my gosh, my knee hurts.' I don't know what's going to happen and I keep pushing myself. I'm glad I took the risk, kept going and played it safe as well, here and there.

"I was a little worried in the hotel on the way here that I would do something that would happen that would prevent me from winning state. All of these possibilities running through my head but I also had to push it out and have faith in my coaches, my teammates, fans, friends and family. I had to listen to them."

A NIACC basketball signee, Jones hasn't completely ruled out also high jumping with the Trojans.

"Coach Twedt told me to talk to the coach and see what we could do," Jones said. "See if I can come in half-way through the season and maybe jump and hurdle with them and see what happens, but otherwise, yeah, I'll be playing basketball at NIACC and finishing my career up there and see if I go to a four-year school and see what the future holds."

Read more in the May 24 print editions of the Sheffield Press and Pioneer Enterprise.