Before every track meet, Kaua‘i High School senior Jamilee Jimenez goes through a specific routine. She sits away from the team to keep to herself for a while and puts on her track spikes extra slowly. Going through her head
Before every track meet, Kaua‘i High School senior Jamilee Jimenez goes through a specific routine. She sits away from the team to keep to herself for a while and puts on her track spikes extra slowly.
Going through her head are images of herself competing in the events of the day, starting out with the high jump, then the long jump, then the relay.
She envisions her every move from taking her mark for the high jump, to the motions of clearing the bar and landing onto the mat.
Then, there’s the long jump, where she pictures herself going down the runway, hitting the board and landing into the pit.
Finally, there’s the Girls 4×100 Meter Relay in which she runs the third leg. For this she mentally practices handing off the baton to her anchor, Tiffany Ikeda-Simao.
Jimenez takes these events seriously as she holds the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation record for the first two and shares the record for the third one. And has been the defending champion in the field events since her freshman year.
At last year’s KIF championship meet, Jimenez broke high jump record by a quarter of an inch with a jump of 5 feet and 2 1/4 inches and the 22-year-old long jump record with a jump of 17 feet, 10 1/2 inches. When it came time for the running events, she and teammates Ikeda-Simao, Auika Muragin and Kathleen Cadiente broke the 21-year-old record in the Girls 4×100 Meter Relay with a time of 50.75.
“At the end of the season, (the coaches) presented us with these plaques and I looked at Tiff’s and Auika’s and they had one record on there, and I looked at mine and I had three records. I never expected to break any records. I never expected anyone to give me a plaque,” she said. “The fact that I have that, it feels so good, that the hard work really paid off.”
At last count, she’s earned 18 medals since she first started running track her freshman year. But on Monday, she had to count them again just to make sure.
“I have 26,” she said as she separated them into three categories. “Four of them from states, 12 from KIF and 10 Rotary. Does that add up?”
It does add up, but throw in a team captain’s medal and that makes 27.
“My freshman year, I was so nervous I couldn’t even function,” she said. “My first time doing the high jump I was nervous because it was the bar and not the bungee, and my coach said to me ‘relax, it’s your freshman year, but you have talent. Don’t let anyone get you down.’”
And she didn’t. In the high jump, Jimenez went on to defeat the defending state champion out of Kapa‘a High School, Jennifer Lindsey, at the championships.
She also took first in the long and triple jumps.
“I was so shot up with nerves my freshman year because I wasn’t expecting to win any events that year, but I ended up winning over seniors,” she said.
That was also the year that Kaua‘i High School won every event at the championships (15 out of 15).
“Then my sophomore year, I think it was my grandma who said colleges were going to start looking at me. So I started to work really hard and I was doing really well and I decided to stick with it,” she said.
That year, she defended all three of her titles and added another one, a medal for the Girls 4×100 Meter Relay.
Then, of course, there was last year’s record-breaking season. It was a good season for her on Kaua‘i, but the state title and gold medal eluded her.
Despite having jumped higher heights in the past, Jimenez cleared 4 feet and 11 inches and that’s where she ended, finishing sixth at the state championships.
Then in the long jump, Jimenez fell short of her 17 feet norm long jump, and jumped 16 feet 8 1/4 inches to finish third.
She and her teammates lost out the state title in the relay, too, by .08 seconds, finishing with a time of 49.56.
“It was disappointing because you put all this hard work into it,” she said. “But coaches are still looking at me and are happy with my work and how I’m doing.”
She admitted that in the beginning, she was a bit “salty” when she wasn’t winning state championships. But now she takes a more enlightened approach to it.
“When I think about it, it’s states. That is the best of the best and that’s good in itself,” she said. “I learned to accept that there are going to be people better than me. Just to get to the top five, that is good. But I want at least one gold.”
Jimenez wants to add a gold medal for the long jump to the collection of medals she has hanging up in her room by her mirror. She looks at them every day and knows that the gold will complete the collection.
But she would like a gold medal with her relay team, too.
“Track is kind of an individual thing, but with the relay, it’s a team. This is the one event I get to do with the team and when you do good, you feel good because you know you contributed to the team,” she said.
With the track and field season in full swing, Jimenez has lots of time to prep for the state meet. She started training earlier than usual, foregoing her senior soccer season so she can better prepare herself for track.
She’s also started a different weightlifting, running and jumping regimen.
“The high jump and the long jump are at the same time, so when I’m doing high jump, I’ve got first call for long jump. It’s pressure, but my coach is trying to help better prepare me for it so I can be ready,” she said. “It’s frustrating sometimes, but you learn to deal with it and push through it.”
Soon, Jimenez will have to push through it in college. After a couple offers from schools, Jimenez has agreed to accept a partial scholarship to the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa to be on the track and field team.
“It’s close to home, yet far enough,” she said. “I’ve lived on Kaua‘i my whole life and I knew that moving to the Mainland would be too big of a transition for me. I decided, I’d go to UH for two years and see where I go from there.”
The next track meet will be the Rotary Meet at 4 p.m., April 4 at Vidinha Stadium. The state championship meet will take place mid-May and will be hosted by O‘ahu’s Mililani High School.
Jamilee Jimenez
Age: 18
Hometown: Molokoa,
Lihu‘e
Family: James and Shanlee
Jimenez; sister Ashlee
Events: High Jump, Long
Jump, 4×100 Meter Relay
KIF accomplishments:
2005: 1st High Jump 5
feet; 1st Long Jump 15 feet
11 inches, 1st Triple Jump
34 feet 6 1/4 inches
2006: 1st High Jump 5 feet,
1st Long Jump 17 feet 4
inches, 1st Triple Jump 33
feet 7 1/2 inches, 1st 4×100
Meter Relay 51.45
2007: 1st 5 feet 2 1/4
inches,*
1st Long Jump 17 feet 10
inches,* 1st Triple Jump 35
inches, 1st 4×100 Meter
Relay 50.75*
*KIF record
• Lanaly Cabalo, sports editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
