BY SAPNA PATHAK
Ask Christine Head about her past three appearances at the Class M-S track and field championships and she says, “Bad karma.”
Turn to her father and he simply laughs, rolls his eyes and won’t say much about each experience.
Indeed, it’s not exactly the response you’d expect from the three-time female pole-vault Class M-S state champion. But then again, it’s the events leading up to her championship-winning leaps that first come to her mind.
“In 2005, I was in the 4 X 800 (relay) and got heat stroke,” said Head. “Then last year, in the 4 X 100, I tripped and fell hard and scratched up my entire body really bad. I’ve just got bad luck at state meets.
It’s so weird.”
The trend continued this year when Head caught her right hand on the spikes of her track shoes, causing a deep cut. Informed she would need stitches, Head chose to risk covering the gash with a makeshift-bandage before taking her first jump.
The risk paid off.
Head’s state title earned her a third straight trip to the Meet of Champions, where she placed first in the female pole vault with a jump of 10 feet. The first-place finish was good enough to send her to the New England Track and Field Regional meet on June 9.
“That’s no surprise,” said Dan Meserve, Hopkinton athletics director. “If she can run, she’ll do it. She’s not the type to let something like that stop her from competing. She’s certainly a part of the strongest (track) team we’ve ever had, especially in pole vault.”
The 5-foot-8 senior came in sixth at New Englands with a jump of 10-06.
Earlier this season, she made her first appearance at the National Indoor Track finals, coming in 13th among 30 of the country’s top female vaulters.
While competing in big meets doesn’t faze her, the pressure of performing in front of big crowds was an issue the Bowdoin College-bound vaulter looked to fix in her final year as a Hawk.
“I really wanted to work on that,” said Head of her pre-meet anxiety. “I usually get nervous when I have to perform in general, so I purposely did things that forced me to be in front of lots of people. I went to more college meets, I gave a National Honor Society speech and even performed a dance with my friend for a charity event.
“I tended to choke a little at meets,” she continued. “I lost a little confidence there, but now I’m more comfortable because I made a conscious decision to get over that. I want to do well in college, so I’ve got to start working on those things before I get there.”