New Benchmark Set at Selby Classic
By Larry JacobsonJTV SportsTo write an article about Jackson High Senior Cierra Pryor – the athlete – doesn’t do her justice and, frankly, it’s not much of a challenge. Google her name and the list of athletic accomplishments is amazing. Watch her run around the track at the James R. Selby Track & Field Classic, where she is now an unprecedented four-time winner of the Outstanding Female Performer Award and it’s breathtaking. She is that fluid, that smooth, that impressive… Cierra doesn’t enter track meets – she dominates them. And when faced with an obstacle (or a hurdle to use a track term) she clears it. Cierra’s right foot is her ‘jump foot,’ meaning when she runs the long jump (in which she holds the state record) she goes airborne off that right foot. During the basketball season this winter she severely sprained the ligaments in her right ankle, making it difficult to get that dynamic lift. Undaunted, Cierra simply started jumping off her left foot. It’s a change that the untrained eye would never notice, but to an athlete it’s significant. To Cierra, it was simply an obstacle that needed to be overcome. ‘Bad right foot? Use the left…