Butts wins high jump, second in LJ

By Christopher Hunt of ArmoryTrack.com

The second her back touched the mat her face turned red. She tried to hide the shock behind her hands but the tears in her eyes sold her out.

Tynita Butts’ two hands covered her mouth while she walked back from the high jump mat to where she placed her warm-ups. She still sat in disbelief until the final jumper missed and Butts, a junior from TC Williams (Alexandria, Va.) won the high jump in 5 feet, 8 1/2 inches, a personal-best by two inches.

“I’m done right now,” Butts said. “My legs are screaming.”

That’s because the high jump was the last of the four events she competed in Friday at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships. She finished second in the long jump in 19-5 1/2, just a half-inch off Vashti Thomas of Mount Pleasant (Calif.), who won the national title in 19-6. She also competed in the 60 meters and ran a 200 leg on her team’s sprint medley relay.

“It’s stressful,” Butts said about competing in so many events at once. “But I try not to think about it. I think of this as my playground and I come here to play.”

The fatigue in her legs mixed with the constant pain she felt from the shin splits that have been plaguing Butt since last year led to her shock in the high jump.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” she said. “I thought I was going to clip it with my leg or something. When I got over it I just thought that wasn’t me. God lifted me over that bar.”