And Natalie Moser likely will do a lot of winning.
By SCOTT PURKS
Published March 8, 2004
TAMPA - By the time the Nash Higgins Relays finished Saturday, Natalie Moser's event resume had grown, which almost didn't seem possible.
In Moser's prep career, she had competed in the 200 and 400 meters, the 110 and 330 hurdles, the 4x100 and 4x400 relays and the pole vault. All events, by the way, she ranked among the county's best.
Now she can add discus and shot put to the list, and even though she isn't the best in those events, she's not sweating it.
"What the heck?" she said. "It was fun, and I got to help my team out."
Her tosses of 80 feet, 6 inches in the discus and 31 feet in the shot helped her school, Wharton, score a few more points on its way to 99, 61 ahead of runnersup Armwood and Gaither.
"I'll do whatever the coaches ask me to do," she said. "I'm happy to."
And this from the returning state champion and county record holder in the pole vault at 12-6, which also placed her among the top 15 high school vaulters in the country.
Now a senior, 13 feet or higher appears within reach along with a scholarship.
"She's stronger, faster, technically better and focused," Moser's vaulting coach, Dave Watson, said. "There is no reason she can't do some great things this year."
After playing volleyball in the fall, Moser has hit the weights and run and run down her neighborhood streets with her vaulting pole.
"Getting the feel for it," she said. "I think it all helped, and I think I'm in pretty good shape at this point."
In her first meet last week, Moser cleared 11-10 and missed at 12-4, nearly 2 feet higher than she cleared in her first meet last season.
"I think that's a good sign," said Moser, who didn't vault at Nash Higgins because of a problem with the vaulting pit. "The goals this year were to jump higher earlier in the season and work up to some longer poles as the season goes on.
"We'd like to get to 13 feet, but we're not focused on that. If I do everything right, then the heights will take care of themselves."
As competitive as Moser is, who knows how high she will go.
At the state meet last year, she showed some of that spirit. After she sealed the victory with a vault of 12-6, she passed on a chance to tie the state record of 12-8 and went for 12-9, narrowly missing on three attempts.
"I just love to compete," she said.
"No matter what event it is, I like to go for it. Competition is just so much fun."
Her future involves the pole vault, but Moser wouldn't mind it including some other events as well.
Heptathlon? Pentathlon? Shoot, some track officials are even talking about starting a decathlon for women.
