Teammates Challenging & Convincing
A lot of Natalie's success has come from her teammates both indirectly and sometimes directly.
"I actually played basketball since the fourth grade and it was my high school basketball teammates who already did track who thought I would be good. They [eventually] convinced me to tryout my freshman year."
It wasn't until her sophomore year though that she decided to focus on track fully. She of course was still not where she is today and was actually only jumping around 15 feet in the long. It was right at that time she was also blessed with the best challenge of her career thus far with teammate Zoe Rice rising to the top of the jumps world too.
Natalie will be the first to tell you that having another 18/40+ jumper on the team was nothing but good for her by challenging her and helping her along the way. "It was great to have someone with the same determination and motivation as me. We cheered each other on always regardless! " Their cheers were answered of course with the 2018 sweep of the long and triple jumps at States.
This indoor season and states will be different without that teammate winning a title day one in the jumps but you can bet she will still be ready and eager to compete.