If you spend nights contemplating life's great mysteries, like why Lindsey Walsh runs faster, jumps farther and throws longer than you can, that might be your first problem.
First to bed, first to rise and first in just about anything she tries this season, the senior arrives at the gym of Lenape High School with her teammates and coaches at 6 a.m.
Twice a week for the last four winters Walsh has worked on becoming the best high jumper in the state at a time when others watch sheep jump fences.
Mystery solved, Sherlock.
"They come in dragging a little bit, but once the bar goes up, they kind of perk up and get going," coach Gerald Richardson said.
Not only does morning practice set the right tone for the team, but it's necessary for two reasons, Richardson said: One, the basketball players don't like being outjumped by female track athletes after school and two, Walsh has other events to work on.
This winter alone Walsh has competed in the 55-meter hurdles, the 200, the 400, the 800, the long jump, the shot put and, oh yeah, the high jump.
"We're not just talking about a high jumper," Richardson said of Walsh, an All-South Jersey soccer player this fall. "We're talking about a pretty good athlete."
For being a full participant of both track and field, and the most versatile -- as well as valuable -- member on her championship team, Walsh is the 2008 Courier-Post Girls' Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.
During the team's breakthrough performance at the Group 4 state relays, Walsh had four of her own, clearing a state-best 5-7 in the high jump, anchoring her 4x55 shuttle hurdles team to a second-place finish and helping both the 4x200 and 4x400 place to ultimately contribute 28 of the winning team's 54 points.
"I love competition," Walsh said. "I love to be in the middle of a fast race."
Walsh qualified for the Group 4 state championships in three events and scored in each, winning the high jump (5-6), placing second in the 55 hurdles (8.45) and anchoring the 4x400 (3:58.8) with a personal-best split of 57.4 for third.
Although adding 24 of the team's 48 points, Walsh knows her teammates' contributions were just as crucial in capturing the narrow five-point victory over Southern Regional -- and a piece of school history: Lenape's first state track championship.
"I think all of the seniors could say they took the initiative and gave it everything they had," said Walsh, one of the team's 12 seniors. "That attitude causes everybody to want to get better. When we're working so hard, it causes the other girls to work just as hard."
Unbeaten statewide in the high jump, Walsh completed her Garden State dominance by coolly jumping 5-6 to break a three-way "jump off" at the Indoor Meet of Champions. She doesn't see the point of getting too worked.
"I enjoy winning, but it's not everything. I just love the sport," Walsh said. "My coach says if it's not fun then why are you doing it? You winning doesn't really mean anything for anybody else, so why worry yourself over it?"
Her dream season would continue at the Eastern States Championships where she bettered her personal-best long jump by nearly two feet, leaping a victorious 18-5.75, the longest by a South Jersey athlete in six years.
Moments later on tired legs, Walsh would suffer her only defeat in the high jump, tying for second with two others.
"That's an incredible performance at Eastern States," Richardson said. "To get first and second, that's pretty darn good."ÊHer success this year shines even brighter when contrasted with her previous winter when she had to convince her dad and distance coach, Jack Walsh, to allow her to compete occasionally with a season-long bout of mononucleosis.
How'd she fare?
"Not so hot," the Monmouth University-bound senior said. "It just motivated me to have a much better spring season. To watch everybody have such great seasons -- you're just dying to get out there."
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