Higher and higher

With state spot clinched, Duffy aims to improve

Graham Thomas/Herald-Leader Siloam Springs junior Alexis Duffy hopes to keep improving her score in the high jump. She also competed in the 400-meter dash and is on the 4x400-meter relay team along with Taylor Gay, Autumn Casey and Rebekah Hill.
Graham Thomas/Herald-Leader Siloam Springs junior Alexis Duffy hopes to keep improving her score in the high jump. She also competed in the 400-meter dash and is on the 4x400-meter relay team along with Taylor Gay, Autumn Casey and Rebekah Hill.

Alexis Duffy can go through the rest of this season's scheduled track meets without having to worry about qualifying in the high jump.

Duffy -- a junior at Siloam Springs -- got that out of the way in the Lady Panthers' first meet of the season on March 19 in Bentonville, jumping a state-qualifying height of 5 feet, 1 inch and finishing third in the event.

Duffy reached 5-1 again and finished first at the Gravette meet last week.

With Siloam Springs' home meet -- the Panther Relays -- scheduled for Thursday at Glenn W. Black Stadium, Duffy is hoping she can go above and beyond her best mark of the year.

"It puts me in a good position to improve my height, so I don't have to stress about getting to that mark," she said. "I can focus on getting better, moving toward the next step."

Duffy has jumped as high as 5-6 in practice, and last year at the state heptathlon in Cabot, she set a personal record of 5-2.25 and finished eighth overall in the state.

The potential to improve is there, according to Siloam Springs coach Sharon Jones, who coaches all athletes in the high jump.

"She's definitely got it in her," Jones said of Duffy.

Duffy said it was Jones that encouraged her to participate in the high jump as a freshman two years ago.

"I tried it just one day in practice," Duffy said. "(Jones) called me over and said 'come do this.' I ended up liking it so I stayed with it."

Duffy's mark of 5-1 is currently the fourth best score in the high jump in the Northwest Arkansas region.

Elise Randels of Rogers High School leads the way with a mark of 5-6, while Olivia Thomas of Fayetteville is at 5-4 and Hannah Martin of Rogers is at 5-3.

Duffy believes she can get her mark up there, too.

"I've just got to get my mind right that I can do it," she said. "The more you think about it, the worse you're going to do really. If you think about it too hard you're going to go there and mess up. But if you don't think about it, and you just jump, you make it because you're not thinking about it. It's just something you do."

The high jump isn't the only place where Duffy helps the Lady Panthers track team.

She competes in the 400-meter dash and she runs the final leg of the 4x400-meter relay.

"She's got long legs," said Siloam Springs coach Rose Cheek-Willis, who coaches the runners. "She's thin. She's got a good stride to her. She's definitely a runner."

In the most recent meet at Gravette, Duffy placed fourth in the 400-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 8.30 seconds. Running with teammates Taylor Gay, Autumn Casey and Rebekah Hill in the mile-relay, they finished second with a time of 4:38.03. The group shaved 1.69 seconds off their previous time of 4:39.72 at Bentonville.

Duffy also was a contributor of the Lady Panthers cross country 6A state championship last fall and played on the 6A state runner-up basketball team.

"It can get hard (going from sport to sport), but most of the time it's easy because the other sports are helping me transition into it," Duffy said. "By staying in that sport I'm staying in shape."

Jones believes Duffy is a good enough athlete that she'll be able to compete in college one day.

"So many times we have kids that are successful but they're not sure they want to go to the next level," Jones said. "She wants to. She's hungry for it and she works on it in practice. But she's not one of those kids that overdoes it. She does what I tell her to do then she puts it up and goes home. She's very coachable."

Sports on 04/08/2015