In the age of specialization, three-sport athletes aren’t too common in high school anymore.
And you’d probably stand a better chance of spotting Bigfoot than an athlete who competes in five varsity sports in the span of a school year.
On Saturday at the Northwest Invitational, it wasn’t hard to find Fox senior Esther Robinson at all. She was on the track a lot, running in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, the 100-meter dash and 300 hurdles.
“The 4x100 is my favorite event,” Robinson said. “I like relays more than open events because it’s a team thing and we’re all working together.”
Since she was a freshman, Robinson has competed on the Fox cross country and softball teams in the fall, the basketball team in the winter, and the soccer and track and field teams in the spring.
“I like to keep busy,” she said. “I love softball but I love running and (Fox athletic director Nick Gianino) helped me out so much. All of my coaches have been understanding. I just love sports. I love being active.”
Robinson said she will attend the University of Missouri-St. Louis, but won’t compete in any of the five sports.
“I might play intramural soccer,” Robinson said. “I’ll have a lot of free time on my hands.”
Robinson said she picked UMSL because it’s close to her home in Arnold.
“I can’t stay away from home,” she said. “I’m a homebody. I love Arnold.”
The Warriors finished 14th out of 15 teams Saturday at Northwest. Robinson was 10th in the 300 hurdles and ninth in the 100, and the Fox was 11th in the 4x100 and ninth in the 4x200.
Sophomore twins Macyn and Sydney Young missed part of the meet while taking the ACT exam, but they returned to finish 13th and 14th respectively in the 200. The Youngs had solid seasons as freshmen and are the Warriors’ top sprinters.
Head coach Jennifer McCallister coached girls track and field for 16 years at Grandview; this is her third year at Fox. She said the Warriors have 58 girls in the program.
“We’ve got a really young group with a lot of potential,” McCallister said. “We’re running a lot of young girls on the varsity so it’s hard to tell where they stand among their peers.”
Junior Lindsay Poitras is part of the Warriors’ sprint relays and competes in the long jump. Sophomore Amie Martin finished fifth in the 3,200 Saturday, clocking 12:13.20. Senior Kristin Hastings and junior Paige Pisoni compete in the triple jump. Pisoni also does the long jump and 300 hurdles. Senior Emily Hulsey and sophomore Julia Green throw the shot put.
The Warriors don’t have any javelin throwers, and McCallister said without a coach to teach the new event, they won’t anytime soon.
“The first two or three weeks you’re trying to figure out, are they sprinters or are they distance, what’s their specialty?” McCallister said. “This year is a learning process but moving forward we’re expecting them to be very competitive.”
The Fox boys finished fourth at the Northwest meet with 72.5 points. Head coach Josh Freeman said his Warriors have steadily progressed this spring.
“Our work ethic has been outstanding,” said Freeman, who is in his fifth year. “We’ve had a lot of improvement in our field events this year.”
That improvement showed on Saturday. Senior Tony Pisoni finished third in the high jump, clearing 5-10. Senior Blake Bryant won the pole vault (14-0) while junior Donovan McCarthy won the long jump (20-11.25), with sophomore Donald Jackson coming second with a leap of 20-8.50. Jackson also took second in the triple jump (41-7).
Sophomore Chase Waters and senior Kyler Vernon were fourth and eighth respectively in the shot put, and Vernon was eighth in the discus.
The flying Fox freshmen had a breakout day Saturday.
Elygh Moore finished third in the 100 in 11.87 seconds, just two-tenths of a second behind the winner. Moore beat two Hazelwood East sprinters at the tape in the 200 to win in 23.85.
“Elygh dropped from 13.5 seconds to 11.8 in a week,” Freeman said.
Other freshmen doing well included Jacob Pisoni, sixth in the 400 in 56.34 and Cameron Howard, fifth in the 800 in 2:19.52.
McCarthy, Tony Pisoni, Carson Gross and Jaidan Allen came in second in the 4x100 relay in 44.92.
Freeman was pleased with how the Warriors held up against some of the best competition in the state.
“We’ve got six good weeks of work to put in but we’ve got high hopes and expectations,” he said. “It’s a long season and you move different kids in and out of events.”