Milesplit Illinois Athletes Of The Week: Week 4

 

Milesplit Illinois is pleased to announce the athletes of the athletes for week four. Each week it is getting harder to pick a male and female athlete of the week. The credit has to go to the coaches who put in the time each day in getting their athletes ready to compete on meet day.

Congratulations to Lena Giger (Sr., Highland) for the girls award and to Jack Denby (Sr., Carlinville) in receiving the top accolades for the boys.

 

Lena becomes the first Illinois school girl to eclipse the 50-foot mark indoors in the shot put-
 

In three long but short years Lena Giger has come a long way.  As a freshman back in 2011, she was in the shadows of heralded throwers Kelsey Card (Carlinville) and Emmonnie Henderson (Edwardsville).  They were busy booming 50-foot puts simultaneously and moving the once obscure girls shot put event into the limelight.  Giger ended up tossing the 4 kilogram ball 42-2.25 by the end of her introductory season.

Fast forward to 2013, Giger stepped up her game to a new level and set a 2A record toss of 48-10.75 in the state championship.  Later that summer she would compete at the World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine. The trip was unnerving at first but it was the perfect backdrop for Giger who will be taking her talents to Stanford next year.

Last weekend in New York City at the New Balance Indoor National Championships, Giger finally corralled her dream and connected on the third attempt and hit exactly 50-0.

Her father and coach David Giger had this to say about his superstar pupil:

“Lena and I have been learning and working together with the shot put now for about 7 years. There's no doubt that the coach/father relationship has been blurred at times."

"The biggest advantage of being coach and father is that we can talk about throwing any time, day or night."

"On paper I'm Lena's coach, but I'd say I'm more of a manager. I make sure she has the equipment she needs and a place to practice. I'm also another set of eyes. I tell her what I see and she figures out what to do with that information."

"I've watched her evolve into the thrower she is now, not so much from my guidance, but rather from her own awareness of what she needs to be doing."

"Lena's progress as a thrower was coming along very, very well in January until we were forced to change practice venues. Her performances took a dive and it was reflected in her performance at the Simplot Games. She's finally re-developing her timing since we found a new 'practice home.’”


‘Jack Be Nimble’ in the pole vault-

Jack Denby has had a busy indoor season unlike many of his competitors. The simple fact that he often treks the 114 miles one way from Carlinville to Bloomington to practice with his Flying Dragons Pole Vault Club mates is not usual.  The dedication has paid off with big time results starting with Reno Pole Vault Summit in Nevada in which Denby cleared a modest 14-10 in January.  He ramped things up on March 8, by competing in two meets in two different parts of the state. In the morning, Denby competed at the Jacksonville Invite and won with a height of 16-0.  In the evening, he traveled to Rolling Meadows to participate in the Windy City Pole Vault Summit.  In that affair he placed second in a personal best 16-3 behind the amazing state record breaking performance of Plainfield Central senior Jake Winder who won in 17-2.5.

Denby once again racked up some major frequent flyer mileage when he traveled to the Big Apple for the New Balance Indoor Nationals. Again Denby was mired in a fight with a great vaulter.  This time he battled the nation’s top pole vaulter Devin King of Louisiana. King went on to win in a national record 17-10.25. Denby had a banner day in his own right as well with a personal best 16-6 that netted him second place.  Indeed the hard work paid off for Denby who will enter the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall.

Coach Mike Cockerham of the Flying Dragons Track Club added these sentiments about Denby:

"I have had the pleaser being Jack's pole vault coach since he was a 7th grader. You will not find a harder worker and more dedicated young man.  He drives two hours one way just to vault with me. Now all of the long hours and hard work is starting to pay off. It is not often a coach gets  the opportunity to coach a great young man like Jack."