Parkview's Indiah Bell: Track Star Makes Successful Leap

Parkview track athlete Indiah Bell isn't shy to try things, but coach Matt Henson's suggestion she try the triple jump struck her as odd.

Yet after second- and first-place finishes in the event her first two times out, she wonders why she hadn't thought of it earlier.

"I watched the other jumpers and just tried to do what they did," said Bell, who's long been a long-jumper and sprinter. "It's not hard, but you have to get the rhythm down, though."

It's still odd triple-jumping off her left foot, but long-jumping off her right.

"Actually, once I did it," she said, "it felt kind of comfortable."

Bell, who three weeks ago set the state's second-longest long-jump distance of 18 feet, 5 inches, triple-jumped 36- 1/2 to take second at the Bulldog Classic, then Monday uncorked a winning 36-6 1/2 at the Gwinnett Championships, tying the state's 11th-best mark. The county effort not only beat the field by nearly two feet, but her 17-3 1/2 won long jump by almost a foot.

Thanks to her scoring half of Parkview's points in the first day of the county meet, the defending-champion Panthers enter today's running finals second behind Collins Hill. Parkview's defending-champion boys come in seventh behind leader Mill Creek.

And Bell's success in today's 100 meters and 400 relay and 1,600 relay, added to her team's seven top-eight finishes Monday, could bring Parkview's girls their second county championship since the late 1990s.

"We don't have a bunch of champions, but we have kids who take fourth or fifth place, and those points add up quickly," Henson said of his girls. "We're able to nickle and dime people to death."

In four seasons at Meadowcreek and two at Parkview, Henson said he's seen talented athletes, but few like Bell. He suspected her athleticism would lead to success in triple jump.

He suggested the senior broaden her scope primarily for two reasons -- to give her a break from the demanding 400 meters, and to entice colleges who seek athletes with talent in both long sprinting and distance jumping. No surprise, the coach said scholarship interest has heated up since Bell began triple-jumping.

"She's pretty versatile," Henson said. "I looked at where we needed her [to score] and moved her... to the triple jump. We tried to cut the load down and make her a little more versatile recruiting-wise, and it's worked."

Bell said Albany State, Savannah State, East Tennessee State and Virginia State have offered her scholarships, but after just that initial triple-jump competition at Bulldog, Georgia Tech and others called.

"By the time we got home from that meet," Henson said, "we had another five or six more contacts about her."

Bell, who competed in track as a sixth-grader in Illinois but not again until her freshman season at Parkview, is increasingly amazed at her success. She's come to prefer jumping to running, and feels anything achievable.

"In running, you can always find someone who keeps up with you, but when you jump well, you can really set apart from the others," she said. "If you jump 18 [feet], I'm looking to jump 18-2."