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Buchanan becomes one of Northview’s all-time jumpers
In the days leading into the start of the high school track and field season, Northview assistant coach Ethan Linton was like a mathematician trying to come up with the best configuration of athletes that, together, would contribute the largest number of points from the long jump event to give the program its best chance at winning a conference championship.
Knowing there were openings at the position after the team’s top jumpers from last season – Macey Timberman and Sidney Linton – had graduated, he wanted to give himself a couple of practices to watch from a distance, hoping something would stick out to him.
That, in fact, is exactly what happened.
Linton observed Northview’s sprinters going through their drills when someone caught his eye.
Seeing Katie Buchanan running the 100 and 200, there was a specific attribute about her that stood out, he said.
“One thing I noticed about her was that she was really fast. The faster you are in long jump, the better. She’s just such a good athlete,” said Linton of Buchanan.
Linton approached Buchanan and asked if she would be interested in giving long jump a try this spring. After competing in high jump during her sophomore and junior seasons, the senior was intrigued by the possibility of a new field event.
After talking through the plan with Northview girls track and field head coach James Grounds and Northview boys track and field head coach Mark Raetz, they collectively came to the conclusion to ‘let her give it a try.’
It didn’t take long for Buchanan to impress with her jumps in practice. And then in Northview’s first meet of the season, she recorded a distance of 16’ 7, which was good enough to place her No. 2 all-time in the program’s history books behind only Leeanna Knight (17’ 11.5). It left the coaching staff wondering what could have been had Buchanan been long jumping from the very beginning of her high school career.
“This year, we’re obviously trying to win a WIC championship, so we’re trying to score as many points as possible and with our best long jumper, which was Macey Timberman, graduating, we were trying to fill her shoes. I thought it was going to be a combination of people. But as it turned out, Katie went over there and knocked it out of the park and has been jumping as far as Macey – and maybe even further,” said Linton.
“We all coach our own events or specialty areas and one day Raetz came up and said, ‘Hey, she wants to try long jump. We’re going to give her the chance to go out there and see what she can do,’” Grounds recalled. “In the first meet, we were all like, ‘Wow. She should’ve been doing this for years.’ The big thing as the head coach is that I trust my specialty coaches know what they’re doing and they’re highlighting which athletes will be the most successful in those events. Sometimes, stuff like this does happen where it takes us a year or two – if not three – to decide where someone’s strong suit is. Some of that has to do with kids seeing themselves third, fourth, fifth in the pecking order and so, maybe they don’t want to try it until later on. However it came out to be this year, we’re glad that it worked out this way because we love athletes finding out special things about themselves.”
Linton said he sees a lot of himself in Buchanan, noting their paths to becoming two of Northview’s best long jumpers came to be as seniors after trying other field events out first. He said the two of them have chatted about the similarities and the success they share, which Linton noted has lit a new spark for Buchanan’s love on the track.
“It’s the same thing that happened to me. I started long jumping my senior year. Come to find out, I don’t think I ever lost the whole year. The same thing is going to happen to Katie. I told her, ‘We’ve had the same situation.’ She started as a senior and didn’t realize she was going to be the best in this area and so we’ve been like, ‘Man, what could have been. She could have been jumping this whole time,’” said Linton. “I feel like this has really lit a new spark for her on the track. She’s always been in the 100, 200, 4x100 and she’s always done fine in those, but when she started beating everyone in long jump, she really started coming to practice with new life. It’s been fun to see her get excited about track again.”
With the way she’s grasped the transition from high jump to long jump – and how quickly she’s done so – Linton foresees interest coming Buchanan’s direction from the collegiate level. He also sees the senior being a pivotal piece in helping the Lady Knights’ chances of capturing a conference title and then making some noise in the postseason after that.
“She’s going to be able to help us score a lot of points in the long jump, so that makes me excited,” he said.