OPTIMIST TRACK Grayson leaps injury hurdle

The Maplewood senior is far from your typical high school athlete.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
AUSTINTOWN -- If you're looking for the standard "I did the best I could and I owe it all to my coach" type of track story, well, you might want to look elsewhere today. Because this story begins with Maplewood senior Jen Grayson.
And Grayson isn't typical.
"I have these dreams about ice cream," she said.
Ice cream?
"Yeah, ice cream," she said. "Dippin' Dots, actually. And I'm just shoveling them in my mouth and my coach, [Mark] Yoder, is just watching me."
OK. And what kind are they?
"Chocolate and strawberry, I think," she said. "Anyway, I'm shoveling them in my mouth before he can say anything to me.
"It's crazy, I know."
Maybe, but this is what happens when you play three sports (volleyball, basketball and track) and spend most of your life doing the things you don't want to do (working out, eating right) and avoiding the things you do want to do (eating ice cream, sleeping in on rainy Saturday mornings in May) in order to get the things you want to have (state championships, college scholarships).
Three-time winner
As an added bonus, Grayson is a gift from the interview gods. But she did more than talk at Saturday's Optimist Meet, winning three events (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, high jump) while battling a sore quadriceps at the end of a busy track week.
"I guess I'm ahead of schedule," said Grayson, who will compete in the heptathlon at YSU next year. "I'm doing better than I was last year. You just hope you get better and better as the year goes on."
Grayson, the defending Division III state high jump champion, jumped 5 feet, 6 inches to win the event on Saturday -- the earliest she's ever reached that height in a season.
That's also the height she reached to win last year's title. Does she ever think about defending it?
"Duh," she said. "Wait, don't put that. It makes me sound bad."
No, no. That's a good answer.
"Of course I do," she said. "You have to think about it. Everything you do is geared toward the state meet."
Inspiration
That's not her only motivation, however.
"[Mineral Ridge's] Levi Leigh is my motivation," she said, laughing. "I just try to run after him. I figure if I'm as good as him, maybe I have a chance."
Leigh, last year's state champ in the 110 hurdles, isn't buying it.
"Yeah, I've heard that," he said, shaking his head. "She was joking about it."
Jokes aside, Grayson has the physical ability to repeat. But like most high jumpers, she sometimes struggles with the mental side.
"Yeah, it's all mental," she said. "And that stinks because I'm a mental case."
Conversely, Girard senior Cachet Murray -- who has won seven state titles in her career -- is OK mentally. She just isn't quite right physically. Murray, who will run at Mississippi, has missed part of the season with a quad injury. She didn't win an event on Saturday, but she's not worried.
"This is just practice for me," she said. "I just came back and nobody's going to remember that Cachet lost the 100. As long as I win my state titles, that's what counts."
Not that midseason meets don't matter. After winning her third event, Grayson walked up holding her three medals and said, "You want to see all my bling for the day?"
Bling, by the way, means expensive jewelry. And midseason bling-bling often leads to the biggest bling-bling of all -- a gold medal.
And if you're lucky, a little ice cream, too.
scalzo@vindy.com