Published: May 10, 2008 08:24 pm            

Another state title for Doyle

AUSTIN — Jessica Doyle keeps all of her University Interscholastic League track and field medals in a shadow box in her room. If the three dimensions of the container represent a medal, Doyle may need to transcend the laws of matter to accompany her newest piece of hardware.

Doyle won the Class 4A pole vault for the second-straight year, capturing her fourth straight medal at the Mike A. Myers Track & Soccer Stadium.

“It’s unbelievably nice (to win a second gold medal),” Doyle said. “It’s awesome.”

Friday wasn’t a day for good day to achieve personal records as the temperature hovered around 95 degrees. The humidity made the fiber glass slippery in the vaulters’ hands, causing several faults even before athletes could plant their poles.

Doyle began the event sitting on the side under the shade of a camping chair. She passed on every height until 11-feet, 6-inches. After Doyle cleared the bar, only three other athletes remained in the competition, including Demi Payne of New Braunfels, the only vaulter to beat Doyle this year.

Payne fouled on all three attempts at 12 feet, as did Cleburne’s Lauren McFarland. Doyle and Sage Lasater of Stephenville were the only two competitors left and after Doyle missed her first chance at the new height, she passed her other attempts.

“We decided to go 12-3 and it threw her off a little bit, but as tough as Jessica is, she adjusted quick,” Hays head track coach Javier Torres said.

Doyle cleared the bar easily and after Lasater passed her attempts, it set the duel at 12-6. Once again, Doyle surprised the crowd by forgoing her attempts in an effort to psyche out Lasater.

The Stephenville vaulter missed her first two attempts and took most of the allotted four minutes of rest between the second and third. Doyle closed her eyes and looked to the track as Lasater planted her pole and launched herself over the bar. Lasater cleared, but her pole came back to hit the bar and knock it off.

“I don’t like to watch anybody else because sometimes it throws people off, so I didn’t want to do it,” Doyle said. “I just wanted to focus on myself and what I needed to do.”

Doyle already won the gold medal because she was the last vaulter to clear the previous height. She took to the runway to try to get near her personal best of 13-4. Doyle missed all three attempts as the pole slipped out of hands on the last two.

Although she was unable to capture a personal best or a state record, Doyle was able to claim her second-straight first-place finish. Doyle, who will attend the University of Texas next year, was happy she was able to end it in style.

“It’s really cool to end with a state gold at my home stadium for next year,” Doyle said. “I love it here and I’m really excited (for next year).”

        

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