7 and 11

INDIANAPOLIS — Elisa Parazzi knew what was at stake.

With 11 jumpers left at 5 feet, 5 inches, clearing the bar one more time would likely secure her a state medal.

She left no doubt.

Parazzi soared over the bar on her first attempt at 5 feet, 5 inches, putting herself ahead of four other competitors in the tiebreaker as she secured a seventh-place finish and a place on the podium Saturday at the IHSAA Girls Track and Field State Championships at Ben Davis.

She was disappointed to not have surpassed the career-best mark of 5 feet, 6 inches, she set in winning the sectional championship a few weeks ago, but also happy to be on the medal stand.

“I’m so proud to be here,” said the Jay County High School exchange student from Italy who flew home the next day. “The goal of my season was to come to state, and I made it. I also got my personal best, so I’ve got nothing to complain about. It’s just the disappointment of the moment.”

Senior teammate Kinsey Shannon nearly joined Parazzi in bringing home state hardware as she placed 11th in the 400-meter dash and was just eight hundredths of a second behind ninth-place finisher Taylor Johnson of Evansville Reitz.

The top nine athletes in each event earn state medals.

“She came in (seeded) 17th and finished 11th,” said JCHS coach Joe Imel. “I’m just really proud of her for working hard all year.

“I’m just really proud of her and proud of all the kids. We had a great season.”

Parazzi’s seventh-place finish earned three points for JCHS, placing it 46th out of 65 scoring teams at the state finals. Cathedral won the state title with 39 points, one ahead of Warren Central.

With a starting height of 5 feet for the state finals, Parazzi was in excellent form early. She glided over the bar easily on her first attempt at 5 feet and 5 feet, 2 inches, joining 12 other athletes in doing so.

It was at 5 feet, 4 inches, that she had a hiccup as she got her body over the bar but knocked it off with her feet. On the second attempt, though, she easily made it, giving her coach and teammates a thumbs up.

Next came 5 feet, 5 inches.

Hoping to put herself in position to earn a medal, Parazzi stretched her left leg, started her run and thrust into the air off her right leg. She barely slipped her body over the bar and then kicked her feet over. She clenched both fists as she jumped out of the pit in jubilation.

That successful first attempt at 5 feet, 5 inches, turned out to be key as it gave her the tiebreaker edge over Marin Hart of Warsaw, Emily Nannenga of Kankakee Valley, Emmaline Leatherman of Shawe Memorial and Kyrsten Fehribach of Paoli.

“I was concentrated on getting my jumps on the first attempt because that’s what matters at important meets like this,” said Parazzi, who became the Patriots’ first state medalist in girls track since Maria Murphy placed eighth in the shot put in 2012. “You have to get the first attempt in order to be in a higher placement … When it was 5-5 — I already missed one attempt at 5-4 — and I was like, ‘This is the opportunity to get back in the competition. You have to make it, but you have to make it at the first.’”

Parazzi would drop out of the competition at the next step, missing all three of her tries at 5 feet, 6 inches. (Tacoria Humphrey of Warren Central went on to win the state title at 5 feet, 9 inches.)

While Parazzi knew exactly what she had to do to lock in a state medal, Shannon had no way of figuring out where she stood. Entering the race as the No. 17 seed, she was running in the second heat of the 400 dash.

As was the case at the regional meet, Shannon was at the back of the field as she made the turn down the home stretch. And as has been her calling card — she rallied with dramatic sprints to the finish line to eke out third-place finishes for the Patriots’ 4x400 relay team in the sectional at Delta and herself in the 400 dash at the regional — she came roaring back down the stretch.

While the three favorites in the heat — Kacyra Simmons of the host Giants, Kayana Maroska of Greenfield-Central and Johnson — held on to the top three spots, Shannon charged in the final meters again, edging West Vigo’s Corynn DeGroote (lane three) by six hundredths of a second for fourth in the heat.

Typically, that would not be expected to challenge for a state medal, as the nine runners with the fastest seed times are in the third and final heat. But it did.

Shannon’s time of 59.69 placed her 11th — faster than two of the competitors in the last heat — and agonizingly close to the 59.61 Johnson ran to earn the final state medal. (Brownsburg’s Jordan Griffin was 10th in 59.67.)

“You try not to dwell on those types of things,” said Imel. “You just look at the journey she came through.

“Just to make it there is a really big deal. And then to be able to say you’re the 11th-fastest girl in the state in the 400-meter dash is a pretty cool thing to be able to brag about.”