Daily Pilot High School Female Athlete of the Week: CdM’s Morgan Simon making up for lost time

Corona del Mar High’s Morgan Simon is only in her second year of pole vaulting.

The natural questions for a young pole vaulter come up: “Are you nervous? Do you feel the butterflies in your stomach?”

To all of the above, Simon offers a simple, one-word response — no.

Simon is no ordinary beginner. Before pole vault, she had gymnastics. She has trained in gymnastics for 12 years, competing in the sport for 10.

Her favorite event is the vault, where Simon says she achieved a career-high score of 9.675 at Level Nine.

There seems to be a connection between gymnasts and the pole vault. Simon wound up giving the field event a try when she learned about it from South Coast Gymnastics teammate Emily Coombs.

Coombs is currently jumping for Washington State. In high school, she was a two-time CIF State qualifier at Orange Lutheran.

Simon is glad that Coombs piqued her curiosity. Since the start of the new year, she has been taking off.

The Sea Kings senior began her indoor season with a personal record of 10 feet, 6 inches at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev.

Less than a month into the high school track and field season, Simon has added more than two feet to her personal-best mark. Her latest achievement saw her jump over the bar at 12-7 in the Triton Invitational at San Clemente High on March 17.

“The last month has been the biggest change for me,” Simon said. “At the beginning of this year, I was so stoked about 10-6. I thought that was so awesome. It was a new PR. I was super-excited about it, and then everything just started clicking.

“I thought [clearing 12-7] was amazing. I was really excited because I’m hoping that it’s going to keep clicking and I’m going to keep going up.”

This most recent stretch has grabbed the attention of the influential in prep track and field circles. Simon has earned a spot in the prestigious Arcadia Invitational, which will be held April 6-7.

Arcadia meet director Rich Gonzalez said that it will likely take a clearance of 12 feet to get into the Saturday Invitational flight, so Simon fits the bill there.

Simon’s 12-7 leads the CIF Southern Section, and it is the third-best mark in the state. The state leader is Laurel Wong of Monterey Santa Catalina, who has jumped 13-3. Fresno Clovis West’s Elizabeth Funk is second at 12-9.

In her junior year, Simon’s season ended in the Division 3 finals. Her new credentials say that she should go to the state meet as a senior. The at-large standard to qualify for state this year is 11-11.

So has Simon allowed herself to start dreaming about her first appearance at the Masters and state meets?

“Recently, I started thinking about it because I didn’t know what the requirements were for it,” Simon said. “I always pictured [that] those girls going to state were jumping so high and the top level.

“Now that I’m here, I’m still kind of processing it because I don’t know how to explain it. I really didn’t think that I could get to this level in this [short] amount of time.”

Gymnasts have certainly earned a name in pole vaulting. State record-holder Rachel Baxter (14-4 at the 2017 Masters), formerly of Canyon and now with Virginia Tech, competed with Wildfire Gymnastics until her freshman year of high school.

Newport Harbor pole vault coach Fritz Howser, who has taken Simon under his wing, says that another facet of Simon’s athleticism is the root cause of her success as a pole vaulter.

“The gymnastics background is a big help, but the thing that I would say separates Morgan is her speed,” Howser said. “She’s a sprinter by training. She runs the 100 meters and anchors the 4x100 relay.

“Her speed gives her a big benefit. Not that the other girls weren’t fast, but it does give her a leg up in combination with the gymnastics.”

With the sprints and relays in play, Simon draws comparisons to Stanford’s Kaitlyn Merritt, who once held the Orange County record in the event after jumping 13-9 for Santa Margarita in a dual meet in 2014.

Howser asserted that often times, pole vaulters hit a mental wall when they reach a height they do not believe is attainable.

It remains to be seen if Simon will face such an obstacle. Her rise has been meteoric, as she has set a new personal record at each of her first three weekend meets.

Fortunately, if she does hit the wall, there is plenty of time left in the season. Additional attempts on longer poles, combined with the adrenaline of facing better competition in the CIF postseason, often allows pole vaulters to break out of their slump.

Simon said she moved up to 13-foot, 135-pound poles, which was a catalyst for her 12-7 jump last week.

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Morgan Simon

Born: Nov. 19, 1999

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5 feet 5

Weight: 115 pounds

Sport: Track and field

Year: Senior

Coach: Fritz Howser

Favorite food: Steak at Mastro’s

Favorite movie: “It” and “Insidious”

Favorite athletic moment: Simon enjoys the feeling of falling into the jump pit immediately after clearing the bar in pole vault. Every height conquered is another obstacle overcome.

Week in review: The Sea Kings senior jumped a career-best 12 feet, 7 inches in the girls’ pole vault competition of the Triton Invitational on Saturday at San Clemente High.

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner