Improving By Leaps & Bounds - Krystal Baker (PA)

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http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/headline ... sports.htm

Improving By Leaps & Bounds
• Bermudian's Baker follows solid debut with spectacular sophomore season

By BRETT KEENER - Times Sports Writer

Early this track & field season, Krystal Baker was compiling some decent heights and distances.

But after a freshman campaign that saw the Bermudian Springs standout notch a District III-AA silver medal in the pole vault, decent wasnít doing it anymore for Baker.

She just couldnít put her finger on why she wasnít quite delivering a big improvement over her first-year times.

ìI was just getting timid, scared to go,î said Baker. ìIt just never felt on. . . I was just told it was the sophomore slump. Everyone was trying to talk me through it.î

Fast forward two months, and decent was no longer in Bakerís vocabulary. The sophomore claimed a gold medal at the YAIAA Championships, won two more golds at the District III-AA Championships, then capped off her season by becoming one of only three area individual athletes to medal at the PIAA Championships. Those performances earned Baker the All-Times Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

What brought about the transformation from good to elite was as much a mystery to Baker as her early-season doldrums were.

ìI really wouldnít know what got things going,î said Baker. ìPole vault is my main focus, so I spent the most time on that. Everything else just kept building up. We had a jump coach this year (Beth Chinnick) and she helped me out on my form and got me straightened out on the jumps.î

The end result had Baker leading the area honor roll in three events, establishing school records in all three: pole vault (10-6), triple jump (36-4.5) and high jump (5-4). Baker was also among the areaís top in the long jump, with a personal-best of 16-2.75.

ìAt the beginning of the season, we could count on her for a few firsts,î said Bermudian head coach Brooke Shambach. ìThen she was bringing in 20