Lawrence High senior Garrett Attig hopes to make a mark in his trademark event on Friday at the Manhattan Relays.
Attig, a three-time state placer in the pole vault, will compete in the event for the first time this season. He has spent the past couple of months recovering from surgery to repair a cartilage tear in his left knee.
“I’m not quite at full strength,” said Attig, the Lions’ lone state track and field champion last year. “I got off the ground in practice Monday, but that’s about it. I’m still kind of scared to jump.”
A healthy Attig will improve an already solid boys team, which has won its first two meets.
Not expecting a blockbuster vault from Attig, LHS head track coach Jerry Skakal listed him at 85 percent.
Attig sustained the knee injury during Lawrence’s 11-1 state championship football season. The 5-foot-10, 173-pounder started at running back and defensive back for Lions.
“It hasn’t bothered me that bad,” Attig said of the knee. “It wasn’t a real serious injury. I just had to have surgery. It’s supposed to get back to 100 percent pretty quick.”
Attig doesn’t know what to expect at the nine-team meet on Friday. He doesn’t plan to reach his season-ending height from a year ago, when he cracked 15-6 to win the Class 6A state vault title.
He has improved his state mark each of the past three years, clearing 13 feet to place sixth as a freshman and 13-6 to place third as a sophomore.
When will Attig regain that state-caliber form?
“I’m hoping at the Kansas Relays (next weekend),” Attig said.
Attig had hoped to vault last weekend at the Texas Relays in Austin but wasn’t in condition to do so.
“I just couldn’t do it, there was no way,” he said.
The winning mark for the high school portion at the Texas Relays was 16-3.
Though he has cleared 16 feet during practice, Attig has never cleared that mark in a meet. He came close at state last year.
“I hope to jump in the 16s,” he said. “I was doing pretty good in practice before I had to have surgery.”
Instead of attending the Texas meet, Attig joined his team at the Emporia Relays. He placed third in the shot put with a 44-11 toss during his first try at the shot in competition.
“He was tired of sitting around twiddling his thumbs and wanted to do something,” Skakal said. “He’s the strongest kid we got. With some work on his mechanics he could get close to 50 feet.”
In the past, Attig had thrown the javelin and long jumped. He has been advised not to compete in those events because of stress on the knee.
If Attig fully recovers, he should threaten the long-standing school vault record of 16-2, set by Tad Scales in 1974.
Attig is still undecided on a college. Determined to play football and compete in track in college, Attig is considering Southern Illinois and Ball State.
