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High (jump) hopes
Aaron and Leanna Hartsough aim for state track & field meet
By Joe Scalzo
CANFIELD
Aaron and Leanna Hartsough started their high jumping careers as middle schoolers but it really began with a big trampoline in their backyard.
“My mom joked every time she wanted us out of the house, she just threw us on the trampoline,” said Leanna, a junior at Canfield. “Seriously, we spent the whole summer on the trampoline.”
The Hartsoughs also spent a lot of time on the trampoline at the Youngstown Gymnastics Center in Boardman and grew up listening to stories from their grandmother, Lana VanAuker, who finished second in the high jump at the Mahoning County meet in 1963.
Their background — and their backyard — eventually helped the Hartsoughs become school record holders at Canfield.
They’ll both look to advance to regional competition at this week’s Division I district meet at Austintown Fitch. Aaron grabbed the fourth and final qualifying spot at last year’s district meet with a jump of 6 feet, 2 inches, while Leanna won the event at 5-4.
“It used to be me pushing her,” said Aaron. “But now, she’s better than me, actually.”
Five years ago, a seventh grader at Western Reserve, Aaron started jumping and got as high as 4-10 — best on the team.
“I wasn’t too good,” he said, shrugging. “But I knew I’d get better.”
Leanna’s start was different. Despite not making the middle school traveling team — “I guess I didn’t look good enough,” Leanna said, laughing — she tried high jumping at her first meet and scissor-kicked 4-6, winning the event.
Considering she hadn’t yet learned the Fosbury Flop — where jumpers lean back over the bar rather than hurdling over it — and considering that’s a good height for varsity jumpers, her talent was obvious.
“I didn’t know she could jump,” said VanAuker, who scissor-kicked 4-4 in high school but had to jump feet first into sawdust. “One day she was sitting in the back of the car and I was saying, ‘OK, Aaron, now get your center of gravity up.’ And all of the sudden she says, ‘Grandma, I can jump, too. But they won’t set the bar high enough for me.”
Leanna laughed at the memory and added, “I was always getting way over the bar and I was like, ‘How come they won’t move it up?’ And all the guys were going, ‘No, you don’t want to move it up. Just keep it there.’”
Aaron, a YSU recruit, tied Canfield’s school record of 6-4 1/4 in 2007, then broke it two years later with a leap of 6-4 1/2. It’s since been broken by junior teammate Richard Rapone, who jumped 6-6 this year.
“He’s a better jumper than me by far, form-wise,” said Aaron, who helped Rapone learn the event.
Leanna jumped 5-6 last year to break the school record and has matched it this spring. After finishing ninth at last year’s regional meet with a jump of 5-2, Leanna finished fifth in the state at this winter’s indoor state meet and should be in the mix for a state berth in two weeks. Aaron, meanwhile, placed sixth at last year’s regional meet with a jump of 6-4 and should also be in contention.
Both of them have also competed at the Junior Olympic national meet.
Interestingly, if they advance to the regional, they’ll likely be competing with another brother/sister high jumping team from North Canton Hoover: Aaron and Maddie Morrow.
“It’s been really cool,” Aaron said of jumping with his sister. “She pushes me to get better.”