Airington's third straight long jump title draws tears

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By Sean Moeller | Saturday, May 19, 2007 1:18 AM CDT | () comments

DES MOINES — It took some convincing.

Davenport Central’s Christina Airington had just won her third consecutive Iowa Class 4A long jump title Friday, and she was sitting by a water station with teammate Alexis Mitchell, sobbing into her hands.

A long-sought goal of breaking the state meet record of 19-feet, 2¼-inches, set by Cedar Rapids Washington’s LaNeisha Waller in 2004, didn’t happen. Mitchell, the third-place finisher in the event, held her hands and told her, “But you’re the state champion.”

“I had to make her be excited,” Mitchell, a sophomore, said a few minutes later.

Airington jumped 18-4¼ on her final preliminary jump, after scratching twice, to skate into the finals. It was a day when she believed a record-breaking performance was possible.

“I wanted it so bad,” she said. “I told people that if I would have got the record, or jumped anything over 19 feet and still gotten beat, I would have been happier than I am right now.

“Usually it’s me being negative that stops me from getting 19. I’ll fight with myself and say, ‘I can do this,’ and then say, ‘No, you can’t.’

“It goes back and forth like that. But today, I actually thought I could do it this time. I’m not a negative person, but I always think on the negative side. I told myself, ‘I can do this.’ I guess I’m just too hard on myself.”

Mitchell continued to make Airington appreciate her accomplishment after jumping a new personal best of 17-9½. Clinton’s Sarah Wenzel was sixth.

“I told her, ‘Do you know how many people want to be you right now, including myself?’” Mitchell said.

Tipton moved into second place in the Class 2A team standings entering the final day of competition, thanks to the Tigers starting the day exactly the way they did Thursday, winning the morning’s first race for 10 points.

They claimed the distance medley relay title and, in doing so, Ashley Miller tied the all-time Iowa record for most state titles won with 13.

She’ll have two chances to break the record today in the 800 and 1,500.

The Tigers ran 4:07.91 and held a lead over runner-up Okoboji Milford for almost the entire race.

“Sometimes it’s more fun catching people, but this was a lot more relaxing,” said Miller, who ran the table in the distance medley during her four years of high school excellence. “It’s always been a special race for me because we’ve had a completely different team every year. It’s cool crossing the finish line and having them all run over to you to celebrate.

“I think I felt the most pressure just tying the record. I think if I break it (Saturday) it will just be icing.”

Sean Moeller can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or at smoeller@qctimes.com . Comment on this story at www.qctimes.com.