Kirsten Andrews Article (Navy)

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http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bi ... _17-07/NAS

Track: Ex-gymnast makes winning part of routine
By JOE GROSS, Senior Staff Writer

As Navy's Kirsten Andrews waits through the final hours before competition begins in this weekend's Patriot League Indoor Track and Field Championships she knows she has big shoes to fill: Her own!

Andrews is the reigning indoor champion in the women's pole vault and hurdles events. She is hoping to repeat that feat but she knows the competition will be just as eager to post the first-place points.

The championships get under way at noon today when the women's pentathlon and men's heptathlon will begin at Halsey Field House. The heptathlon continues at 8:45 a.m. tomorrow. Other events start at 11 a.m. and will run until 5 p.m. The meet wraps up on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. and run until the awards ceremony is held at 5:15 p.m.

Andrews already has some of Navy's best performances in each of her specialties, but knows she may have to perform even better to repeat her championships. And, she thinks it's important to go into this meet the same way she would go into any other meet to keep from feeling intimidated by the level of competition.

Ironically, one of her top rivals in each event will be Bucknell's Melanie Buczko, someone she has been competing against since high school in Pennsylvania. As tough as Andrews' battles with Buczco will be, she also will have to beat her Navy teammate Danielle Still, who edged her with a school record 8.0 in the 55-meter hurdles.

Andrews, a quantitative economics major who has a couple of 4.0 semesters under her belt, assured she is able to focus on what's most important going into big meets. The Navy women, 9-0 in dual meets, will take to their home track in quest of their first Patriot League team title since 2001.

"I like to compete at our home track. A lot of fans come out to support us here. And, they just painted the inside of Halsey; so it's a little bit lighter and nicer than it was," said Andrews, who grew up competing in the dog-eat-dog world of club gymnastics where she learned the skills that she transferred to pole vaulting when she got to Garden Spot High School in New Holland, Pa.

"When I was doing gymnastics I trained 20 to 25 hours a week when I was 10 or 12 years old and that gave me a lot of self discipline in addition to the way my parents raised me," Andrews said. "I felt I would be able to transition that to here pretty well.

"The high school track coach knew I had done gymnastics and told me I should try pole vaulting because I was accustomed to going upside-down. I started it freshman year and loved it. It's a really fun event," she said. "I had to learn technique, but it came to me pretty quickly. I jumped (10 feet, 1 inch) as a freshman and got to 11-6 before I got out of high school."

She parlayed that ability into the invitation to compete at the Naval Academy. She has continued to progress at the collegiate level.

"My personal best jump was 12-8 just last weekend but I missed at 13 feet," Andrews said. "Hopefully this weekend I'll be going for 13 feet again because Mel (Buczko) has jumped 13. It will be good competition."

Andrews said she also started running hurdles because of the flexibility and jumping ability she garnered from her years in gymnastics. As with pole vault, she picked up the technique quickly and began to excel in those events as well.

Andrews works hard to improve her technique and gladly accepts coaching from men's coach Larry Bartels and Navy women's record holder Mandy Hasenauer as well as the other pole vaulters on the team.