As Sydnie Vanek stood in Arizona track and field coach Fred Harvey’s office last Friday morning, she couldn’t help but take in the history as she looked around.
Pictures lined the walls; magazine covers sat on the coffee table.
Images of Olympic legends Jackie Joyner Kersee, Gail Devers and Florence Griffith Joyner stood out, while a huge photo of Harvey’s wife, Janet, who was an elite hurdler and long jumper herself, sits above his desk.
One wall especially caught Vanek’s eye. It has photos, but also a list of all of the UA’s NCAA champions. On the list: long jumper Gayle Hopkins to high jumper Beloved Promise (who competed during her UA days as Brigetta Barrett) to, most recently, hurdler Sage Watson.
Vanek just a few weeks ago at the Desert Heat Classic set the Arizona freshman long jump record at 21 feet, 5.5 inches (6.54 meters); that’s the second best ever in UA history, and tops in the Pac-12 this season heading into the conference’s championship meet this weekend in Boulder, Colorado.
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Arizona long jumper Sydnie Vanek set a new Arizona freshman record — and Pac-12 best mark heading into the conference championships — at the Desert Heat Classic at Drachman Stadium on April 27.
Harvey, who never likes to predict outcomes, because anything can happen on any given day, said that he has never had a freshman do what Vanek is doing right now.
“This is special,” he said. “I remember telling her, ‘They just don’t know who you are yet. Why should they? Knowing your talent, knowing what you did, it literally is just a matter of getting consistent opportunity to train without crossing over and things are just going to click.’”
Despite being the two-time California CIF State Champion girls long jump out of Clovis High School and, more recently, setting this new mark, Harvey thinks that Vanek is just scratching the surface.
Harvey added that besides the talent, Vanek’s body structure — long and lanky at 6-feet tall — is key for a long jumper.
He said it’s pretty simple: the “higher angle of takeoff leads to further jumps.”
Added Harvey: “If you have a higher angle of takeoff and you have speed, and you can negotiate the board properly, you’re going to jump further than anyone else.”
Arizona freshman Sydnie Vanek is a two-sport athlete for the Wildcats, competing at the NCAA Division I level in track and field as a jumper and as an outside hitter on the UA volleyball team.
Multi-sport potential
Vanek isn’t just a start on the track for the Wildcats; she actually competes in two sports.
In the fall, she can be found on the volleyball court.
After the season ended, she took a few weeks off, then got back in the weight room to prepare for her upcoming track season.
Vanek is just one of the latest athletes at Arizona who currently spend their year split between two sports. They include Erin Tack (women’s basketball and javelin) and Kelly Lynn Wetteland (former swimmer and current triathlete who also runs long distance). Harvey is hoping to add a few football players next season including running back Rayshon “Speedy” Luke.
Harvey’s other crossover athletes in the past included Gerhard de beer, who was a discus thrower and an offensive tackle from 2013-2017.
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Michael Bates was sprinter who excelled for Arizona on the football field at numerous spots including running back, wide receiver and kickoff returns; Bates eventually won a bronze medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, while also making five Pro Bowls over a decade-long NFL career.
Arizona freshman jumper Sydnie Vanek competes for the UA track and field team during the Desert Heat Classic at Drachman Stadium on April 27.
Vanek isn’t the first volleyballer to also compete in track. Her coach, Rita Stubbs, was also a shot putter and there was also Erin Aldrich, who also competed in high jump before transferring to Texas.
While most other two-sport athletes finish up one sport, then focus on the other, Vanek is an exception to that rule. She participated in spring volleyball at the very same time as track.
Her final spring volleyball match was in San Diego just after the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California. She then hopped in the car and drove to San Diego.
“That was my last week of double practices,” Vanek said. “…It was difficult. It was volleyball in the morning (after getting up at 6 am), class, practice, track, practice, lift homework, sleep, do it all over again. Sometimes my body was definitely a little sore. I don’t think it was anything I couldn’t do. I’ve been doing it my whole life. It was just like, ‘Yay, here we go again — two sports! Exciting.’ I’m just thankful I get to do both, though.”
Her record-setting performance came the week after volleyball ended and she had a little extra sleep; she credited her “fresh legs, fresh eyes.”
Arizona freshman Sydnie Vanek (far right) is a two-sport athlete for the Wildcats, competing at the NCAA Division I level in track and field as a jumper and as an outside hitter on the UA volleyball team.
The day of the meet she went through her normal routine, starting with having a teammate braid her hair — two braids with two little buns. For Vanek it’s all about “Look good, jump good,” and “look good, play good for volleyball.”
Then she listened to music, stretched and ate. There was breakfast and lots of snacks. In between jumps she was most likely eating Goldfish crackers.
Vanek, who tries to be loose and having fun at the track, knew she was jumping far in practice and that setting a new record wasn’t out of reach.
“I think my first jump of that meet we moved my mark back about half a foot because it was windy and I didn’t want to go over on my first jump,” Vanek said. “I jumped pretty good from behind the board and coach (Bobby) Carter was like ‘It’s gonna be a good jump day,’ and it was a good jump day. I (set a personal record) twice. But no, I didn’t really have an idea I was going to jump that (on) that day.”
Finding what stuck
Playing two sports — or even three, as Vanek also played basketball in high school — just seemed natural to Vanek. Her mom, Lori, was a multi-sport athlete herself. Lori Vanek played basketball at Point Loma Nazarene and was a high jumper.
Arizona freshman Sydnie Vanek is a two-sport athlete for the Wildcats, competing at the NCAA Division I level in track and field as a jumper and as an outside hitter on the UA volleyball team.
While Sydnie Vanek calls her mom a “track mom,” she wasn’t pushed into volleyball or track. To the contrary, she tried a number of different sports until she found ones that stuck. Long jump was one of the first events in track that she tried and her passion grew from there — so much so that her goals right now are doing well at Pac-12 championships and making it to Eugene, Oregon for the second round of NCAAs (Vanek and other Arizona athletes will open at the NCAA West first round site in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on May 22).
Her ultimate goal is winning a national championship, and yes, getting on Harvey’s wall as the latest Arizona champion.
“I do want to win a national championship that’s always been on my mind. I’ve always wanted to go really far on track,” Vanek said.
“I just love (long jump). I just love jumping in the air. I love the sand. I love the thrill of it. I love the environment. There’s no better environment than like sitting out there watching a four by four like watching your team run. It’s just so exciting. It just has something else to it that like no other sport brings.”
