St. Paul's Paulsen Jumps into the Medals at State

St. Paul’s Jonah Paulsen saved the best jumps of his high school career for last.

Wednesday morning, off the runway at Omaha’s Burke Stadium, Paulsen made the sand fly at the NSAA Class B State Track and Field Championships when he made his mark at 44-10.75 to place third in the boys’ triple jump.

The recent St. Paul High School graduate, who finished in seventh at last year’s state meet after recording a jump of 43-08.25, couldn’t help but smile when asked about his performance.

“I think that it was fantastic,” Paulsen said. “It was my best performance of the year, definitely.”

On Wednesday, the Wildcat’s best jump, which came on his third attempt of the prelims, ended up being the one that snagged him the bronze medal and that set a new personal best for the senior. Earlier in the flight, Paulsen had recorded marks of 43-10.25 and 43-04.75, which had, at the moment, put him in second and fourth places, respectively.

That third jump helped Pauslen enter the finals sitting second in the field.

“The first two phases were really clicking out there,” Paulsen said of his performance in the event. “I had a lot of adrenaline and got a big jump in… Then, I was having trouble with my last phase there, I was kind of collapsing into the pit.”

When it came time to close out the prelims, Paulsen said that “everything just clicked,” and that the “adrenaline” was there help him set a new personal best mark.

In the finals, Pauslen’s remained in second after he recorded a jump of 41-08 on his first attempt. However, on the second round of jumps, McCook’s Brett Fraker had a mammoth leap of 45-08.75 to slip past the Wildcat and secure the silver.

Paulsen wasn’t deterred, however, by falling a place in the standings, as the recent graduate closed out his prep career with jumps of 40-09.5 and 44-02.5. In a moment of reflection on the sport’s biggest stage in the state, Paulsen said that his last jump was “a good finish.”

“I know Fraker from McCook slipped up there ahead of me with his second-to-last jump, but still, finishing in the top three, you have to be really happy,” he said.

Aurora’s Carsen Staehr won the Class B state title in the triple jump on Saturday. The senior fouled on his first attempt, but then landed at 46-05 with his second jump to end up leading the field. Staehr, who was on top the entire morning, ended up winning the gold with a mark of 47-09.75 on his final jump of the finals.

Paulsen was no stranger to competing against the Husky, having jumped opposite him multiple times this season – including at last week’s district meet in Holdrege. In fact, he said there was some comfort in seeing such familiar competition at the state meet.

“It's always encouraging when you have familiar faces in there and you know what they can do,” he said. “Just seeing those guys compete, those familiar faces, it just lets me know what I have to do.”

While the Wildcat was the one in the sand on Wednesday morning, he said he credits his success during the season and throughout his career to the many great coaches he has had the chance to work with.

“Coach Grabowski, my jumps coach, did a great job preparing me for getting here,” Paulsen remarked. “She always stresses the recovery and the ice baths and I followed along with that and it set up a great performance today.”

Wednesday’s triple jump marked the final time that Paulsen represented St. Paul High School in competition, as he graduated earlier this month and has already set his sights on jumping at the collegiate level for Concordia University in Seward.

The fact that the state meet marked the last time he would compete wearing Blue and Gold was “bitter-sweet” he said.

“I have loved representing St. Paul these last three years of jumping,” Paulsen noted. “It has just been a great experience with Coach Koehn, Coach Grabowski, and Coach Fairbanks, my first year; they were all very encouraging in me getting into jumps and they played a massive part in my jumping career here at St. Paul.”

Despite the fact that he ended his career with some hardware at state and with a cache of great memories and experiences, Paulsen did point out that there was one thing he won’t exit the St. Paul track program with: the school triple jump record.

“My main goal coming into this meet was a mark; it was to get the school record of 44-11,” he said. “I jumped a 44-10.5. I was a half-an-inch off.”

However, that half inch didn’t dampen Paulsen’s spirits and he exited with the bronze medal and a broad grin.

“It was a great feeling being out there in the top three,” he concluded. “I can’t be too disappointed with that.”