Marble Falls’ Cuplin wins triple jump state title
CAPTION: Marble Falls junior Madison Cuplin with her Class 4A state silver medal in the long jump and the gold medal for winning the championship in the triple jump. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
Marble Falls High School junior Madison Cuplin won her first Class 4A state title May 14.
It came in the triple jump with a mark of 40 feet and 5.75 inches after earning a silver in the long jump hours earlier at Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin.
Cuplin was eighth in the 100 meters in 12.06 seconds and ninth in the 200 meters in 24.62 seconds.
“She stepped to the line and gave everything she had today,” Lady Mustangs head coach Brenda Gonzalez said. “She finished this season with a gold and a silver medal from state. I’m proud of her.”
Cuplin started and finished the triple jump competition the way most envision taking on their own projects and meeting their own goals.
The Lady Mustang sent a clear message to the other eight athletes on her first jump, a mark of 40-1.25 inches that immediately put her atop of the leaderboard.
And then in her final jump of the competition she finished with an exclamation point – 40-5.75 to clinch her first state title.
“On her very last jump, I was like ‘if you’re going for it, make (the University Interscholastic League official) call a scratch. She hasn’t really been doing it. Put the pressure on her, and make her do it,'” horizontal jumping coach Jamie Graham recalled telling Cuplin before she took her final attempt. “And she never called a scratch. What I’m getting at is what you want to do is make them worry about that. Our place is you just have to go for it, and Maddie went for it.”
Graham said the plan was for Cuplin “to do exactly that” when officials began the competition.
“The idea was to go get a safe jump (on her first attempt),” he said. “She was not near scratching. She was halfway on the board, so she still had another two or three inches to go and went out there and did a good job and then let everybody else try to catch her.”
The other eight jumpers immediately felt the ante, he said.
“After the first jump in the finals I was like ‘OK, we can start thinking about conserving energy if you want,'” Graham said. “The thing that was awesome was she was like ‘no I think I have another 40, I feel like I have another good jump in me today.'”
CAPTION: Marble Falls junior Madison Cuplin (center) atop of the podium for the triple jump with Kilgore freshman Kerrington Bell (left), who captured silver, and Krum senior Marlie Morris, who took bronze. Courtesy photo
She was close throughout the next four attempts: 39-11.5, 38-9, 39-8.5 and 39-11.
Because she was in the lead, she saw the other eight athletes complete their six jumps and knew she had won gold. And again, Graham and Gonzalez asked Cuplin if she wanted to continue or pass.
“I was like ‘no need to do it,'” Graham said. “She’s like ‘no I want to put my stamp on it.’ And she went 40 feet and 5.75 (inches) on her last jump and got every bit of the board.”
“I did tell her ‘if you’re going to jump, then go for it, don’t waste a rep,'” Gonzalez recalled saying. “And that was her best jump, that’s where she got 40-5.75.”
Though her form wasn’t perfect — “I feel like she was thinking a little too much,” Graham said — Cuplin left no doubt the gold medal was coming to south Burnet County.
“Just go jump, go fly, go be an athlete,” Graham said. “We talked about going for jumps, trying to get all the board. She never scratched, but she did get far in there.”
Cuplin’s day began at 7 a.m. Her first event was the long jump at 10:45 a.m. where she earned her first medal, silver, thanks to a leap of 20-2.75 that tied Sunnyvale senior Chiora Enyinna-Okeigbo, who got gold because her second best jump was 20-1.75. The UIL’s tiebreaker is comparing each jumper’s second best mark. Cuplin’s was 20-0.5.
The Lady Mustang got out of the heat to rest and hydrate for the afternoon. At 2:15 p.m. she was back in the stadium to get ready for the triple jump, watched teammate Graham Goggans earn silver in the 800 meters in 1 minute and 55.20 seconds at around 5:30 p.m., then competed in the 100 meters at around 6:05 p.m. and the 200 meters at around 7:55. p.m.
After knowing the outcome of the running events, Gonzalez was if the advice would have been different on passing on some of those triple jumps to save some energy.
“Triple jump is her favorite event,” Gonzalez said. “She was really wanting to hit a larger mark. This is her stage, she made it this far. And honestly, I think she would have been fine if the heat wasn’t as hot as it was. It was insanely hot. She jumped 12 jumps. It’s been a long day. We tried to help her recover as much as possible. She was in the AC between jumps and after jumps. She had her legs up, she had ice bags as a pillow. We were trying to cool her down, trying to fuel her up. And she did better this year than last. Last year she competed in two events and won a medal. This year she competed in four events and won two medals. She’s improving, and I’m just proud of her.”
