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Continuing tradition: Mitchell another Central long jump champ

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By Jon Gremmels | Friday, May 16, 2008 11:39 PM CDT | () comments

DES MOINES — Shortly before she went to the infield to warm up for the Class 4A girls long jump, Davenport Central’s Alexis Mitchell talked on the telephone with Christina Airington, her former teammate who won state titles in the event the past three years.

“She told me, ‘If you beat me, I’ll be a little bit mad, but get it done,’” Mitchell said.

She got it done.

Mitchell, a junior, was the only jumper to clear 18 feet, and she extended Central’s string of state titles in the event to four Friday at the Iowa Class 4A girls track and field state meet at Drake Stadium. Airington, now a freshman at Northern Iowa, shouldn’t be too displeased, either, because Mitchell’s 18-foot-43/4 jump was a half-inch shorter than her winning distance of a year ago, when Mitchell placed third.

Mitchell entered the meet with the best regional performance — “I knew people would be gunning for me,” she said — but the field also included last year’s runner-up, Iowa City West’s Jessica Gehrke.

“I was really looking at her as my competition,” Mitchell said.

It soon became apparent, though, that Artianna Black-Scott of Waukee was the main threat. When Black-Scott broke off a 17-101/4 effort to lead the preliminaries, Mitchell knew what she had to do.

“Her jump in the preliminaries made me a little nervous,” Mitchell said. “I knew that I could get out there farther, and when I knew that she had jumped to 17-10, I knew that’s what I had to get past. So I just went into finals knowing I had to pop off a big one.

“I thrive under pressure, and I think the pressure of her being in front of me made me jump farther.“

Mitchell hit 18-43/4 on her first jump in the finals, and Black-Scott fouled on all three of her attempts in the finals, including the final jump of the competition with Mitchell huddled near the landing pit praying.

“I was praying to God. I didn’t want her to scratch, I wanted her to jump far. But when she scratched, I was like, ‘Thank God,’ like He helped me out on this one,” Mitchell said.

With a title in hand, now, there’s a different type of pressure on Mitchell: pressure to repeat.

“I’m glad to be returning, and hopefully I can keep my title for two years in a row,” she said. “We have great incoming talent, including a long jumper, and hopefully she can carry on the tradition.”

Jon Gremmels can be contacted at (563) 383-2294 or at jgremmels@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qcvarsity.com.