Anderson flying high for 4th time
Silver Creek senior, a Kansas commit, takes state high jump title
LAKEWOOD » At the Colorado high school state track meet here Thursday, as has been the case all season, Silver Creek’s Rylee Anderson did plenty of waiting around in between her turns competing in the Class 4A girls high jump. She cooled under her umbrella while her competition whittled itself down.
And, when the event was finally over, with Anderson having outlasted runner-up Raina Branch of Vista PEAK, the senior earned a fourth consecutive championship with a jump of 5-feet, 7.5-inches.
It wasn’t Anderson’s best ever performance — she had jumped 5-11 at the Simplot Games in February against internationally elite competition, a mark that tied her for the second-best jump in the nation by a high school female this year — but it was the feather in the cap of her storied prep career.
While Anderson had to sweat a little bit Thursday, such has not been the case at most meets over the past four years during which the Kansas pledge cemented herself as one of the state’s best high jumpers ever.
“With her, it’s a matter of her having competition,” Silver Creek coach Jacy Riel said. “When she comes in and is jumping against girls who are jumping 5-4 or 5-5, it’s hard for her, because she has to sit around and wait. Then she jumps, and sits around and waits a lot more.”
Anderson did that early and often on Thursday, but when it came down to the final few athletes, the sophomore Branch made her work for another crown. After breezing through her first couple jumps with ease, Anderson knocked the bar off at 5-05.50 but recovered in the next attempt to move on. By that time, with the bar at 5-06.50, just Anderson, Branch and Niwot freshman Taylor James remained.
“At that point, I knew it wasn’t going to come easy,” Anderson said. “I had to remain focused, and I had to keep believing in the technique that helped me win the three years prior.”
Anderson cleared the bar on her first try, while Branch took three attempts and James was eliminated. Anderson and Branch would go on to pass 5-07.50 each on their second jump, meaning that when neither athlete could clear 5-08.50, the title went to Anderson based off her fewer number of attempts at 5-06.50.
And, as noted by Matt Hemingway, who’s been working with Anderson throughout high school, it’s the senior’s willingness to be coached that will make her even more capable at the Division I level. Hemingway, who set the Colorado boys high school record in the high jump at Buena Vista in 1991 and went on to win a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, emphasized the senior doesn’t let her success get to her head.
“She’s always receptive to feedback, and if I give her information, she takes it and immediately tries to apply it,” Hemingway said. “That’s one of the things about being successful in this event at the next level, is that you have to be humble enough to know you don’t know it all. In that respect, she doesn’t carry an ego. Kids come to practice who are jumping six, seven inches lower than her, and she’s still helping and willing to work with anybody.”