For two full years, Taylor Jarosinski and her coaches knew she was the best pole vaulter in Indiana. And for two full years, Jarosinski had to wait to prove it.
The wait served as motivation, and Jarosinski took the time away from competition to make significant fundamental improvements — but on the flip side, the Center Grove senior knew she’d be under the microscope this spring.
What if, after all that time, someone else came along and denied her the state championship she had yet to claim?
“It’s like, ‘Well, who knows who’s out there?'” Jarosinski said. “Because without competitions, there’s no checks. There’s no checks for yourself and where you’re actually at, so I think it was a lot of fighting the doubt and just remembering that I know what I’m doing.
“It put a lot of pressure on me, but I also like pressure and I like to use that, and it pushed me this year a lot more than it would have in any other situation.”
The pressure — paired, of course, with incredible talent — pushed Jarosinski to vault a personal-best 13 feet at the state meet earlier this month, more than enough to claim that elusive championship medal.
The Trojan star is also the Daily Journal’s Athlete of the Year for girls track and field.
As a sophomore, Jarosinski cleared 12 feet, 9 inches at state to match Hamilton Southeastern senior Kennedy Drish, but she lost out on first place because she had missed more attempts overall.
That vault tied the school record held by former Trojan and Indiana University All-American Sydney (Clute) Walter. Jarosinski didn’t take sole possession of that mark until this month — but she knew she was progressing through all of that time in between, even if it wasn’t yet showing in competition.
“I saw my form progress so much,” she said. “Over quarantine, we got time to break down stuff and really focus on little things that make a big difference eventually. I think it took a long time to reap the benefits of that, because that was last March that I started working on those things, and I would say stuff really didn’t start coming together until sectionals this year.
“So it was a long process, but looking back you can see how things started to form and change and develop, and my form is always changing, but it’s on its way to being where I want it to be.”
Jarosinski actually made an attempt at a state-record height of 13-7 to close out the state meet, coming up just short (“Honestly, on the way up, I thought I had it”) on a pole she hadn’t used before that day.
Seeing how close she came gave Jarosinski a big confidence boost as she gets ready to begin her collegiate vaulting career at IU.
“I look at, okay, if I can do that dead tired in the hot, end of my senior year at state,” she said, “I can make attempts at heights like that. I’ve never really had a chance to.”
She’ll have plenty of opportunities to raise the bar moving forward with the Hoosiers. As for her time at Center Grove, she’s just happy that she was finally able to reach the top of the podium before it ended.
The interminable wait just made it that much sweeter.
“Winning after all that was just the icing on the cake to the whole season,” Jarosinski said, “and really just the whole high school career, just because of how crazy it’s been the last year and a half.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”All-County team” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
The 2021 All-County team for girls track:
Gabi Allen, Whiteland senior: Placed sixth at state in 100 hurdles, 11th in 200-meter dash and 19th in 4×100 relay … Named top athlete at county meet after winning the 100 and 200.
Kate Henselmeier, Center Grove sophomore: Claimed county, sectional and regional championships in the 400-meter dash before placing 16th at state … Ran on sectional-clinching 4×400 relay.
Bella Hodges, Center Grove junior: Earned state medal with an eighth-place finish in 800-meter run and set county meet record at that same distance … also a regional qualifier on 4×400 relay.
Bella Jackson, Whiteland senior: Battled through injuries to finish second at state in the high jump, tying her personal best at 5 feet, 9 inches … won county, sectional and regional titles in same event.
Victoria Jackson, Whiteland freshman: Capped debut season by qualifying for state in two events, placing 13th in the 800-meter run and also helping the Warriors finish 19th in the 4×400 relay.
Taylor Jarosinski, Center Grove senior: Capped a perfect season in the pole vault by clearing a school-record 13 feet to earn state championship … Also won county, conference, sectional and regional titles.
Lauren Klem, Franklin freshman: Won county championship at 1,600 meters and went on to place 17th at state in that event … Also a regional qualifier at 3,200 meters.
Makensie Kramer, Center Grove senior: State runner-up in 100 hurdles with a personal-best time of 14.44 seconds … regional qualifier in 300 hurdles … Won county and sectional crowns in both events.
Drew Mallory, Whiteland junior: Took third place at state in shot put with a heave of 43 feet, 1 inch … Won county titles in both shot and discus, shattering the meet record in the latter (145-5).
Skyler Sichting, Center Grove junior: Finished 11th at the state finals in the 100-meter hurdles … Was also a sectional runner-up and regional qualifier in the 300 hurdles.
Shelby Wingler, Center Grove sophomore: Lone county athlete to earn two state medals, finishing sixth in the shot put and eighth in the discus … Was first in discus at regional meet.
Honorable mention
Jaclyn Boardman, Franklin; Siena Halfaker, Greenwood; Paige Iaria, Indian Creek; Ellie Irwin, Greenwood; Cami Kelsay, Franklin; Madi Kramer, Center Grove; Lillian Lacy, Franklin; Kristen Lavergne, Center Grove; Kendall Mirise, Franklin; Claire Overfelt, Whiteland; Ella Rasche, Center Grove
[sc:pullout-text-end]
