Jason Casey
Jessy Hart’s sophomore season ended with a bad turn in her first outing at the state cross-country championships Saturday at Lane Community College, spraining an ankle midway through the race.
Hart tried to keep going, but rather than injure her ankle more, she didn’t continue.
Still, said Coach Kambria Schumacher, Hart’s PR of 19:58 in the conference championship to finish fourth fulfilled her goal of peaking at the right time.
“I am happy with her progress,” Schumacher said of the sophomore. “I mean, if you look at her times throughout the season it didn’t look like she was progressing that much.
“But she got sick through the middle of it, and so I had her back off. She peaked right at the right race, and I know she could have held that through state; it just didn’t work for her this year.
“She at least has two more years, and so I expect to get her there the next couple of years, and she should do much better with having experience being there.”
Schumacher said that Hart is “really easily coachable,” follows directions and goes all out in practices and races.
“She is, like, the ideal athlete and I believe she has a lot more potential in her. I’ve just got to make her believe it. But she’ll get there, since she’s young and it takes experience too. I have no doubt in my mind that she will make it to state the next two years.”