Hempfield grad Jenna Uncapher battled bad knee to set Clarion heptathlon record

When Jenna Uncapher committed to compete with the track and field team at Clarion, she had no intention of becoming a heptathlete. She wanted to high jump.

That’s what she was most comfortable doing. That’s where she felt she excelled while at Hempfield. She also had done long jump, hurdles and a little sprinting with the Spartans, but her heart was set on the high jump.

Clarion coach Ben Bevevino and his staff, however, knew Uncapher was capable of being a good “multi.” And, truth be told, Uncapher was having a hard time giving up a lot of the events she had done for so long.

So heptathlon (and pentathlon during indoor season) it was. It turned out to be a great move because in the history of Clarion women’s track and field, no one did it better.

At the PSAC championship meet, Uncapher placed second with 4,501 points, 30 points better than the previous program mark, which had stood for 15 years. Included in her record-setting performance was a first-place finish in the long jump (5.15 meters) and a personal-best effort in the javelin (32.99).

In the final event, the 800 meters, she finished third at 2 minutes, 32.07 seconds to earn enough points for the program record.

“That was a super surprise,” she said about the record. “They told me right after I finished the 800 that that’s what I needed to run to do that. But I didn’t even know what the record was. I had no idea I was even close.

“I was told in middle school track that I wouldn’t be a good runner, that I would just be a jumper. I kept low standards for myself, but it worked out in the end.”

Besides overcoming doubts about her ability to master running events, Uncapher cleared a couple of other figurative hurdles on her way to the school record. She admitted to having struggles with performance anxiety, and the severity of it would depend on which event she was doing.

The one that caused her the most stress was the 800. To a sprinter and jumper, 800 meters might as well be 1,000 miles.

“That was always the one that got me the most worked up,” she said. “That probably took me until the end of my junior year in college to really get comfortable running it.”

On top of it, she had been dealing with a torn meniscus in her knee since Thanksgiving. She suffered the injury while practicing on her own, and she essentially had to sit out the indoor season just so she was healthy enough to compete in outdoor.

“I really had no idea from then on what she was going to be able to do,” Bevevino said. “It was really just keep her healthy and do what we can do.”

She competed in the PSAC indoor championships as part of a relay team, but, for most of the winter, she was limited to working out on a bike and doing some rehab in the swimming pool.

As outdoor season dawned, Uncapher started with more technical training to ramp up for the heptathlon, but Bevevino said he constantly was checking on her to make sure she wasn’t further damaging the knee.

The biggest difficulty was the high jump, her favorite event. Running linear — as in a sprint or on the approach for the long jump — didn’t seem to affect her knee. And for her throwing events, javelin and shot put, she could wear a brace for extra stability.

It was the careening approach to the high jump bar that caused a pinching sensation in the joint.

“Running on the curve for that … it’s just a lot of shearing forces on the knee,” Bevevino said. “But that is what she’s probably most natural at was that event. Once she was a little bit more sure of herself, everything kind of clicked.”

And as happy as she was to earn the silver medal and set the program mark in the heptathlon, there is a small part of her that wonders what could have been.

“Had I had a whole year to train like I had (my junior) year, I could have gotten first because I was only off by 24 points,” Uncapher said. “That would have been 2 seconds faster in the 800. Last year I ran 2:25, and this year I think I ran 2:32, 2:34, something like that. So I definitely think it was a factor.”

The school record wasn’t Uncapher’s only joy at the conference championships. She qualified for her favorite event, the high jump, and, bum knee and all, placed fifth with a height of 1.56 meters.

As an added bonus, she qualified for PSACs in the long jump for the first time.

That event, she said, was what started it all for her in middle school, and even though she finished well out of a spot on the podium, she was happy to add that event to her final track and field competition.

Uncapher has one year of eligibility remaining, but, she said, track has beaten up her body and she is ready to hang up her cleats. She said she finally will schedule surgery for her ailing knee over the summer. In the meantime, she has a nursing job waiting for her in the oncology unit at Hershey Hospital.

She leaves at peace with what she accomplished. And she leaves on top of the Clarion record books.

“Honestly, I was so grateful to be able to compete because for a while there, they were like, ‘You need surgery right now,’ ” she said. “Our whole goal for me taking it easy in indoor was just to get me to outdoor so I could last. … I’m so thankful that I got what I got and was even able to do it this year.”