Giltner Finally Reaches State’s Highest Point

Liz Giltner of Chaminade High considers herself a heptathlete who happens to be a good high-jumper.

For two years, Giltner has been fighting an invisible ceiling in her first love, the high jump, ever since she cleared 5 feet 8 inches as a freshman.

She has jumped that high several times since, including six clearances this year, but every time Giltner has attempted to jump higher, the bar has always ended up off its standards.

Until Saturday, that is.

Giltner, a junior, cleared 5-10 on her first attempt at that height Saturday at Cerritos College and became Chaminade’s first state track and field champion and only the second girls’ state high-jump champion from the region.

Chrissy Mills of Campbell Hall won back-to-back state titles as a sophomore and a junior in 1988-89.

“I’ve been chasing her for years,” Giltner said. “She’s just somebody who’s always been there, something to shoot for.”

Giltner’s 5-10 effort puts her in a four-way tie for the fourth-best jump in the region. Mills is first at 6-0, a mark that Giltner will shoot for when she travels to Ohio later this month to compete in the heptathlon in the junior national championships.

She won the pentathlon at the indoor national championship meet in Roxbury, Mass., in March, and all of her training has been geared toward multi-event competition.

“All season long, we’ve been working on my strength, and I’ve been really tired during meets,” Giltner said.

“I wondered what was I doing wrong. It’s not what I was doing wrong, it was that my training schedule was off.”

Giltner always closes her eyes immediately upon takeoff, a habit that also occurs while she is hurdling. But she had her eyes wide open while defending state champion Tara Flaming of Reedley Immanuel was jumping.

Flaming cleared 6-0 twice as a junior last year and was tied for the best jump in the state this year at 5-10 with Tayebba Haneff of Laguna Hills.

Haneff missed all three of her attempts at 5-10, and finished third at 5-8. Flaming missed her first attempt at 5-10 but cleared her second, giving Giltner the victory on fewer misses.

“[Coach] Stefan [Hoelzel] had said I could do 5-10 in this meet, and I was looking forward to see if I could actually do it,” Giltner said.

“What sticks in my mind is opening my eyes on the way down and seeing that the bar was still there.”