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Top 10 Plano Sports Stories of 2012: 3. She is Legend: Madu marvels in final high school meet
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
Every so often, there are showings at the Class 5A Track and Field State Championships that span superlatives ranging from dominant to elite or even singular.
And then there's the performance of Plano East senior Jennifer Madu.
The Lady Panthers' track phenom culminated a storied high school career Saturday in her third run through Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin for the state meet.
"[Madu is] a great kid on and off the track," said Christopher Lillie, East head coach. "She's a very high leader for our team, so they can see the little things that it takes to compete at that level, be it things like warm-ups and cool-downs.
"It really shows the rest of the team, with her overall attitude, how to become an elite athlete; not just the athletic ability, but the attitude that it takes as well."
That attitude was in emphatic form Saturday when Madu put together one of the signature individual performances in state history. When trying to find a barometer for comparison, the most recent example would be Rowlett product and current Texas standout Marquise Goodwin, whose senior stint at state culminated in three gold medals (4x100 relay, long jump and triple jump) and two silvers (100, 200).
In regards to the girls ranks, Madu may well sprint and jump in a class of her own.
"I can't recall a female doing something similar to what Jennifer did," Lillie said.
From a city-wide perspective, Madu's career stands alone with nine total medals at state -- six of which are gold.
Those gold medals match the total number amassed by the remainder of East's program alone and double the number claimed in the history of Plano West.
Mind you, this is the doing of one athlete, and in a city that has showcased some of the area's top track and field stars. In East's case, alum and Olympic competitor Erica McLain's triple jump of 43-5 1/4 still stands as the 5A record. Ditto for West alum Erin Bedell's state-record runs in both the 800 (2:08.16) and 1,600 (4:43.58), while Plano Senior alum Scott MacPherson had the distance circuit in the palm of his hand from 2003-05.
What differentiates Madu from her contemporaries is her versatility to excel in both the sprints and length jumps.
"With her speed and great athleticism, we felt like she had the ability to run almost any event and be successful at it," Lillie said.
It's made her a force to be reckoned with for four years, with Saturday closing the curtain on her varsity career and setting the table for a collegiate career at Texas A&M.
"As a coach, there are those one-in-a-million track kids," Lillie said. "Hopefully I get to coach another one someday, but four golds is an unbelievable triumph and being so versatile in so many events. I probably won't ever get to see a great athlete like Jennifer again, which is sad on my end, but I'm happy to see her advance on to the next level and achieve her goals there."
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