Jaguar aims higher
Reigning Class 5A high jump champion seeks to defend title
The sage voice of Northern New Mexico track and field came up to Lucas McNatt and offered him advice only a coach could give.
Moments after McNatt, the reigning Class 5A high jump champion for Capital, missed on his second attempt at 5 feet, 10 inches in his signature event during Tuesday’s opening day action of the Golden Spikes Relays at Santa Fe High, Allan Lockridge walked over to the senior and told him very succinctly what he needed to do.
“Trust your steps,” said Lockridge, the former Pojoaque Valley head track and field coach-turnedmeet official. “You changed your steps, didn’t you? Go back to what you were doing. Trust your steps.”
If McNatt had any doubts about that advice, they were quashed when he cleared the height — but just barely.
“I brushed [the bar],” McNatt said moments after his successful leap.
With the goal of 6 feet and a qualifying mark for the 5A state meet just within his grasp, McNatt
simply ran out of energy and scratched all three of his chances to finish in fourth place in the event that Santa Fe Prep’s Sam Sparks won at 6-0. McNatt had a busy schedule, though, as he ran the leading leg of the Jaguars’ 400 relay team and was the anchor for the 800 relay that finished second to Bernalillo. He competed
in discus — the final event to be completed for the day — on his schedule, which he did right after finishing the high jump.
McNatt said he usually goes into a meet focusing on one event more than the others on his list, and the 800 relay topped the other events at this meet. It showed as he took Capital from fourth to second during his 200 leg of the race in 1 minute, 38 seconds.
The effort it took sapped his energy for the high jump, so much so that his glutes cramped while he jumped at 5-4.
That went away after a while, but McNatt admitted he knew he didn’t have much gas left in the tank to reach 6-0.
“It’s usually due to what’s at stake,” McNatt said. “So, [Tuesday] was the four-by-[200]. I wanted to see how good we could get with our guys. It’s difficult, but I’ve been doing this for four years.”
McNatt might be a state champion in the high jump, but he has not spent enough time practicing it. He missed the first two weeks of practice as he finished the wrestling season. Then, he dedicated his time toward preparing for the state Boys and Girls Club of New Mexico’s Youth of the Year competition, in which he won and earned a $5,000-per-year scholarship over the next seven years.
After that, he spent spring break in Oklahoma, where he helped rebuild the shower at his grandmother’s house.
“It had a nasty leak in it and some mold,” McNatt said. “There wasn’t really time for breaks where I could run or do any exercises. But it was worth it. Obviously, I’ll do anything for my family.”
With all of that out of the way, McNatt finally started bearing down in practice to make up for lost time. He topped out at 5-8 at the Moriarty meet, but he feels that he is on the cusp of making a breakthrough. It might come this weekend at Capital’s home meet, the Jaguar Invitational. McNatt qualified for state last April at the meet, and it set up his opportunity to become high jump champion just a month later.
“I’m excited for it, especially because it’s Senior Day,” McNatt said. “That would be awesome at my home track, but to do it anywhere would be awesome, too.”
Awesome could describe Abigail Gunther’s performance in the girls pole vault, as the Taos junior cleared 10 feet to set a personal best in the event. She also pushed herself a foot-and-a-half ahead of Moriarty’s Sowelu Lottimer for the best performance in 4A this year.
Gunther credits some of her success this year to her time in gymnastics competing for High Altitude Athletics in Taos, which she finds a lot of similarities between the two sports in terms of technique and footwork. Gunther also finds herself bouncing back and forth between track and gymnastics.
“I was going from track, from 3 to 5 [p.m.] to gymnastics from 6 to 8,” Gunther said. “That was a lot. I am still doing [gymnastics], but I am focusing more on track, so I am taking a couple of days off during the week from that to focus on track.”
Much like McNatt, Gunther has found success in trusting her steps.