Richard Smith

West Valley Preps

When Dempster Jackson arrived on the Northwest Christian campus to begin coaching girls track and field, Makenna McClure was a household name.

For her first three years of high school, track was one of three sports McClure dabbled in. The Peoria resident started for the Crusaders’ volleyball and soccer teams.

“The second I stepped on this campus, (I heard) that the best athlete at this school is Makenna McClure. I heard that all day, every day, from every coach I came in contact with,” Jackson said. “And she lived up to it.”

McClure credited Jackson and his staff for unlocking her potential in the hurdles and jumps this year.

It paid off during the Division IV track meet early this month at Mesa Community College. She took home gold in the 300-meter hurdles and triple jump and finished fourth in the 100 hurdles and sixth in the long jump.

“Going into it I though about this being my last high school meet.I love track and I have to give it all I have. I’ve been putting all of the work in,” McClure said. “I was fourth in the 300 and I thought, ‘I know I can beat those people.’ I’m very competitive so I just put it all out there.”

The love of track, she said, was a new development this spring. Early in her high school career, it was more of a way to keep busy, have fun with friends and stay in shape for volleyball.

She still had some good results, placing third in the Division IV long jump sixth in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles as a junior in 2017.

“Track, in the past, was more for fun. My friends were doing I so I said, hey I’ll try it and see if I like it,” McClure said. “Now we have new coaches that took it more serious. The other coaches weren’t as strict — people came in and out of practice and it wasn’t a big priority.”

McClure had her best showing a year ago, despite being only a couple months removed from a knee injury.

Her recovery and the looming volleyball season caused her to shy away from the triple jump, which would prove to be her best event this spring.

“I wanted to try it my junior year but I was coming back from my knee injury and people said it would be too hard on my body,” McClure said. “I had no idea how to do anything.”

Her second meet as a triple jumper, the third annual Small Schools Invite at Mesa Community College, was a breakthrough. McClure said she jumped 34 feet 1 3/4 inches to win the meet, but she was so new to the event that she asked if it was a good mark.

It was. Indeed. McClure would only surpass it twice all year — a personal best of 35 feet 4 inches at the Greenway Invitational and the 34 feet 11 1/2 inches she won the Division IV title with.

Northwest Christian senior Makenna McClure stands atop the podium with her medal after winning the Division IV 300-meter hurdles May 5. While she was discovering the triple jumper within, the Crusaders’ coaching staff was looking to unlock more of her potential in hurdles.

Jackson instituted a regimen of strength work that was more specific to track. The whole team benefited, but McClure in particular saw the results in between hurdles.

“I knew that she could run faster, so our sprints coach contributed a great deal to increasing her speed. Then I translated that speed in between the hurdles. We focused a lot on increasing stride length. She was technically sound over the hurdles, she just needed to be faster between the hurdles,” Jackson said.

The Northwest Christian staff scored a mock state meet each week to prepare the athletes.

Then, McClure proved the sheet faulty in the actual state meet. She set a personal best of 47.64 in the preliminaries, then broke it again with a 47.36 to hold off Scottsdale Prep senior Sonja Rao.

“(The coaches) taught me things I had no idea of before. It definitely changed the game and made me want to pursue track,” McClure said. “This year I was more serious.”

Conversely, the Crusaders girls team built its hopes around McClure’s versatility.In the end, Northwest Christian placed sixth in Division IV with 28 of its 44 points coming from McClure.

She also set school records in the triple jump and both hurdling events.

“If Makenna achieved all we expected her to, the girls would have a really good shot of finishing in the top five, maybe on the podium.” Jackson said.

Now she wants to continue her track career — more than any other sport — in college. Jackson said a number of college coaches have asked about her, particularly since the state meet.

Wherever she ends up, McClure said she wants to select a pre-med major and eventually become a physician’s assistant.

“It was the best feeling because track is very hard, mentally and physically,” McClure said. “Placing at the end was the ending I needed. That’s the closure I needed, for track and high school.”

Northwest Christian senior Makenna McClure skips during a triple jump competition earlier this year. Despite this being her first year competing in the event, she claimed the Division IV state title.