The Smurawas will remember it as a perfect day.
Shawano Community High School senior Kia Smurawa jumped a school record 17 feet, 9 inches in the long jump at the WIAA Division 1 sectional Friday at St. Norbert College’s Schneider Stadium in De Pere, qualifying for the WIAA State Championships next week.
“I’m so excited,” Kia Smurawa said. “I wasn’t 100 percent sure we made it.”
Smurawa and her father, coach Scott Smurawa, waited for the final results to be read at the stadium — she finished in third place, then made for Shawano so the senior could make it to her graduation.
“As soon as we found out, we drove back,” Kia Smurawa said. “I changed in the car into my dress and graduation gown. We ran into the school just in time for them to start reading off some names.”
“It’s a banner day,” Scott Smurawa said. “I don’t know how many days get better than this in a person’s life.”
As a coach and a father, Scott Smurawa was proud.
“It’s pretty exciting just as a coach,” he said. “As a dad, you are proud. I jumped and ran track myself. I didn’t go to state. As a parent you always want a child to do a little better than you in everything. She’s going to state, a school record, just an awesome thing.
“On top of all that, we made it back here and she walked and she graduated.”
Kia Smurawa’s day did not start as well as she would have liked. Her first attempt in the long jump was under 14 feet, due in part to a wooden board she was not familiar with.
“We adjusted her steps,” said Scott Smurawa, who coached jumping events for the first time this year. “We got her on the board and she just relaxed.”
“I kind of got the nerves out of my system,” Kia Smurawa said. “I was already at sectionals; I didn’t have anything to lose.”
Her second jump went 17-3 1/4, breaking the school record of 16-10.
Her third attempt went 17-9. In the finals, she hit 16-11, scratched, then went 17-6.
Her 17-9 jump stood as the third best at the meet, and will likely stand for a while at SCHS.
“That 17-9 is quite the school record when you compare it to 16-10, which stood for many years,” Scott Smurawa said. “This one is going to be tough to beat.”
Kia Smurawa was the only state qualifier among the seven sectional qualifiers SCHS had at the meet.
Brice Bergner (100 dash) and Dan Boivin (pole vault) each just missed the cut for state, taking fourth in their events.
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