For an athlete who has spent the vast majority of her life competing in high-level gymnastics, Wilbraham & Monson Academy's Lauren Poole '17 sure is pretty good at track.
For the third time in as many spring track seasons, Lauren set a record, this time doing so in the long jump during a meet April 23 at Deerfield Academy. Lauren soared 16 feet, 5 inches, crushing the previous mark by 11 inches.
"It's awesome. I'm so happy," Lauren said. "I just want to thank my coaches."
Lauren started moving closer to the previous school mark of 15-6 this year. In a meet April 20, she went 14-4. Three days later, she stuck a 15-5 on her first attempt to pull within an inch of the record before demolishing the old mark on her final jump of the competition.
"The first meet of this season, I just felt more ready for track," Lauren said. "I could tell it was starting to work. I thought I could do well this year. It clicked."
Actually, even though she had no track experience before coming to WMA, the sport has clicked with Lauren from the outset. She was part of a school record her freshmen year when the 4x100-meter relay team posted a new standard. As a sophomore, relegated to strictly throwing events because of a bad back, she destroyed the shot put record by more than 2 feet with a throw of 33-3.
With three records to her credit, she's going for more, shooting for the school 100 and discus marks.
Lauren is regarded as one of the elite gymnasts in the northeast, winning the vault at the USA Gymnastics Region VI Championship in April, which was her ninth year of competitive gymnastics. All that specialized gymnastics training, though, has made track that much more enjoyable.
"Track is definitely more fun," she said. "I've always approached it as fun and being part of a team sport. I don't get to do that with gymnastics, but track gives me that opportunity so I can talk with my friends and get to know people better. But I never thought I would do well at it."