NEW HEIGHTS
Stephenson looks down on high jump competition with another school record
ALLY STEPHENSON stands under the high jump bar at Kingfisher High School’s track. The bar is raised to 5-5, a height she cleared while breaking her own school record last week. Stephenson, a freshman, is only 5-3. [KT&FP Staff Photo]
Having already taken part in two relays, Ally Stephenson wasn’t sure how much she’d have left for the high jump.
Then when she stepped into the high jump pit and saw the stature of her competition, her anxiety grew.
“I didn’t think I had a chance,” she admitted.
Turns out it she had more than a chance.
The Kingfisher High School freshman continued to make history last Friday when she bested a host of competitors from Classes 5A and 6A to win the high jump at Deer Creek’s Kathy Scoville Memorial Track Meet.
She also broke her own school record in the process.
Stephenson and Westmoore senior Tristen Robb were neck and neck - well sort of - when they were the last two standing after both cleared 5-feet-2-inches.
Robb towers at 6-foot-2 and was last year’s bronze medalist at the Class 6A state meet.
Stephenson is a mere 5-foot-3, was the shortest jumper in the field and had already run in the 400 and 800 meter relays.
“I didn’t think I’d be able to jump very well,” she said. “I didn’t know if I’d have the legs.”
But when the bar was raised to 5-4, it was Stephenson who cleared it as Robb was eliminated.
That gave her the gold medal and a new school record, one she’d set just over a week before when she jumped 5-2 at the Watonga meet.
She wasn’t done, however.
Meet officials nudged the bar to 5-5…and Stephenson soared over it again.
“I felt like I got over it pretty easy,” she said. “I really think I could have cleared 5-6 or 5-7 on that jump.”
As it is, Stephenson has moved the school record up by four inches this year despite a stature that doesn’t seem suited for the event.
“Nobody gave her a chance at Deer Creek,” said KHS head track coach Micah Nall.
“Nobody ever gives her a chance and then she out-jumps them.”
Stephenson and Madeline Loosen were the biggest earners for Kingfisher’s 28.2 points in the large-school meet.
That tied the team for 10th place with Yukon. Union won both the girls and boys meets with 158 and 134 points, respectively.
Loosen was third in the 800 meter run and fourth in the 1,600 for KHS.