Sky’s the limit for high school jumper
Personal best at prestigious California meet will open up a lot of doors for Valley Royals teenager
On some level, Alexa Porpaczy fell into jumping. “I kind of got lucky,” said the Semiahmoo Secondary Grade 11, who won the high school invitational high jump at the prestigious Mt. Sac Relays in Torrance, Calif., recently with a leap that qualifies her for the Canadian team for Commonwealth Youth Games this July in Nassau, Bahamas.
“We did it in class in elementary school. I went to a meet in Grade 8 and tried it and ended up doing well. I decided that I should join a club after that. I ended up going to provincials and winning.
“I just thought to try it and it’s now what consumes a lot of my time.”
At Mt. Sac, Porpaczy, 16, jumped a personal-best 1.77 metres, the minimum standard for the Commonwealth Youth, an event open to athletes aged 14-18. At last word, the Valley Royals club member was the lone competitor her age in Canada to have reached that plateau this season. The Canadian team is expected to be announced Monday.
Cassidy Palka, the reigning California state champion from Oaks Christian, was the runner-up at Mt. Sac, with a 1.72 metre effort. She’s already committed to USC. That, too, offers up some idea of Porpaczy’s potential.
Porpaczy is planning to write her SATs in the coming days, although she contends she isn’t set on going the NCAA route after next year.
“I’m keeping my options open,” said Porpaczy, who’s interested academically in the sciences, with biology in particular.
“There are so many good schools locally. I don’t want to go to the NCAA just to say that I’m going to the NCAA. I want to go to a school that’s outstanding.”
The 5-foot-11 Porpaczy admits she’s started to dial in her interest in high jump in the past couple of years. She won the national Under-18 Legion gold medal in Saint-Therese, Que., last August with a 1.69-metre effort, and that was coming off a 1.76-metre showing at a meet in Nanaimo a few weeks prior to that.
She can get caught up in “binge-watching,” high jumpers on YouTube, with Derek Drouin among her favourites to study.
She’s training under celebrated Royals power/speed coach Ziggy Szelagowicz, whose proteges include two-time Olympian Mike Mason. Szelagowicz spotted Porpaczy at a club meet.
“I was just jumping in old runners. I didn’t even have spikes then,” she said.
Nagging injuries, illness and the chilly winter weather limited her training this off-season, so she admits she’s surprised at how much early success she’s having so far.
She is shooting to break the 1.80 metre barrier, namely because that’s her height and Szelagowicz preaches “you are not a real high jumper until you jump your height.”
For perspective, only two Canadian women of any age he reached that mark so far this season.
“Am I surprised at how things have gone? Yeah, it surprises me a lot,” Porpaczy said. “It’s such a simple sport in some ways. The training is so basic. You feel like you’re doing nothing at all really and then all of the sudden you’re making these gains. My coach just knows the right training methods. When the big results come — like qualifying for Team Canada — it can be so surreal.”
Jim Bennest probably feels the same way about what she’s done. He was the elementary school teacher who introduced Porpaczy to high jump all those years ago. He recently sent her a letter, congratulating her on the success she’s achieved.
“It’s pretty cool that he’s been keeping up on my results,” Porpaczy said.