Track stars reaching new limits

Senior Ashley Rhoades, a high jumper on the women’s track and field team, has set lofty goals.

Luckily, she’s used to leaping great heights.

Her most recent effort resulted in a 1.84 meter-high bar clearance, making her the first female Hoosier to clear 6 feet in IU’s history.

“A lot of times coach will have me think, ‘Just do the same thing as the previous jump’ because, usually, I’ve been composed, I didn’t worry about the height on the last one, and I clear it by enough that I probably will have the height on the next bar,” Rhoades said of her pre-jump mindset. “I just have to ignore the fact that it is that high and just go and do what I am able to do.”

In a sport where it’s just her and the bar, that mental toughness is necessary.

She and sophomore high jumper Derek Drouin epitomize the maturity and discipline needed to clear the bars they set for themselves – not just in their event, but in life.
In last year’s NCAA Mideast Regional, Drouin displayed this poise as he faced off against Tone Belt, a national champion in the long jump in the 2007-08 season and fifth-place performer in the high jump the year prior.

The way the story goes, Belt made efforts to intimidate the younger, less-experienced Drouin, staring down the then-freshman as he came off the mat and roaring after crossing the bar.

Drouin was unfazed. He walked to the starting point, took off his warm-ups and completed the same jump. He quietly stepped off the landing mat.
He then went on to win the regional.

“Both of them have the ability to focus in on what they’re doing and not get lost in a lot of the other minutia that’s going on around them and not get caught up in too many other thought processes,” said IU coach Jeff Huntoon, who focuses on the jumpers squad. “They’re going to focus on the one or two little elements that allowed them to miss the last bar and just go out there and give another good attempt.”

That level of focus comes from intense practice time, Drouin said. His regular three-hour routine in preparing for his events allows him to have a clear head going into meets. That preparation brings the confidence it takes for him to soar.

“Once I get to a meet, it’s easy to go through my head and be like, ‘OK, this isn’t anything. I’m used to it. I’ve seen this height before. I can jump this,’” he said.

He’s been working on clearing a 7-foot-4-inch high bar regularly in practice, but he’s reached greater heights. At the Indiana Open on Jan. 9, Drouin leaped a quarter of an inch higher, meeting the automatic qualifier for the NCAA competition. The jump also made him the first person on U.S. soil to clear that height this year – collegiate or otherwise.

He then attempted to beat the bar once again, going for a 2.28-meter clearance, which would have made his jump top in the world for high jumpers at the time.

From looking at tape of the jump, you can’t tell if it was Drouin who knocked over the bar or a gust of air from the vents in Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse.

The best part about their event, Rhoades said, is that the only thing limiting how far jumpers can go is the same thing they have defeated to get this far – themselves.

“It just motivates me that there’s always another mark,” she said. “There’s always another goal that I can reach. If it’s a centimeter, if it’s a couple inches, there’s always a little bit better that you can do. There’s always another standard that you can hit.”

To overcome the fears and doubts that the bar represents, to beat your biggest enemy, is something many people try their entire lives to achieve.

These two college students have found it already.

Drouin started competing regularly in the high jump in high school during his junior year. That same year, he went to the World Youth Championships in the Czech Republic, placing 10th in the high jump.

The level of maturity needed to compete at a high level at such a young age, he said, toughened him.

“Really, getting thrown into the deep end, I just learned to swim,” he said.

Now, he’s learning how to fly. And it’s safe to say, for both himself and Rhoades, the sky’s the limit.