Vaulter grounded by fatigue

By STEVE LEE

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 1, 2000

DADE CITY -- A week of weightlifting and pole vaulting, capped off by red-eye flights to and from upstate New York, finally wore out Sarah James.

"I felt like I was in a dream I was so tired," said James, who took a nap Monday after a morning weightlifting session at Pasco High.

That mid-afternoon slumber, she admitted, was more pleasant than her performance at the 34th USA Track & Field National Junior Olympic Championships.

Although James has ascended to 12 feet in practice, she could only muster a 10-6 to tie for 10th in the Young Women's division.

"It was frustrating," said James, who as a senior was a silver medalist in the Class 2A state meet.

"I'm not making excuses," coach Brian Woods said. "More or less it was a mental lapse.

"She kind of burned herself out. She's been jumping a lot at my camp."

At Woods' four-day camp last week, James vaulted and lifted weights from Monday to Thursday. Then at 3 a.m. Friday morning, the Kansas State signee, her mother, Robyn, and Woods flew to Buffalo, leaving James anything but well-rested for Saturday's competition in Amherst, N.Y.

Watching James in warmups on Saturday, Woods could tell something was amiss.

"She was slower than I've seen her before," the coach said. "She was really out of gas. She was off a step or two and that really complicates things in the pole vault."

To make matters worse, it began raining soon after the pole vaulting competition began.

"By the time the bar went up to 10 feet the rain came," Woods said. "She told me a couple of times, "I slipped on the last one."'

Having cleared the bar at 11-8, James is the Pasco County record-holder. On a better day, Woods felt she could have defeated Saturday's winner, Samantha Shepard, of Massachusetts, who jumped 11-113/4.

Despite the recent setback, Woods feels James is "going to be a great college jumper."

"That's one of the best jump programs in the country right now," Woods said of Kansas State. "More than anything else, she's going to improve because she'll have more time and more jumping."

As for the meet in New York, Woods advises James to chalk it up to experience.

"Any time you can get to a meet like that and compete against the best around it helps," he said. "It was definitely a learning experience."

And a tiring one at that.

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