Track star Kate Hall said Tuesday that coaching made all the difference in her decision to transfer from Iowa State to the University of Georgia.
“I went to visit Georgia a year and a half ago (on a recruiting trip) and really loved it there,” she said. “The only thing was I wasn’t really comfortable with the coaching staff. Now that’s changed. The coach who will coach me, I really see myself thriving under.”
Petros Kyprianou was promoted from an assistant track coach to the Bulldogs’ head coach at the end of last season. He has trained national champions – including triple jumper Keturah Orji, a sophomore at Georgia – and several All-Americans.
Hall, who grew up in Casco and competed for Lake Region High, set a national high school record last June with a long jump of 22 feet, 5 inches – a mark that qualifies her for the U.S. Olympic trials this summer.
Now a college freshman, she grew disenchanted with her decision to attend Iowa State because she expected to be able to continue working with her personal trainer, Chris Pribish of South Portland, on strength and conditioning.
“Iowa State just wasn’t a good fit for me in the end. When I was recruited to go there I was led to believe it would be a lot different than it was. It seemed like a good situation at the time, but it didn’t end up working out,” Hall said. “The training style wasn’t for me. And I didn’t see myself thriving.”
Eric and Jenn Hall were happy Iowa State officials gave their daughter a transfer-release, which will allow her to compete for the Bulldogs next school year. And they’re happy Georgia has what they called a huge support staff with five dietitians to help their daughter, who is a Type 1 diabetic and has Celiac disease.
Kyprianou said Hall’s training at Georgia will be consistent with the work she’s done with Pribish in the past.
“If the training is putting you in a position that would very likely cause you to get injured, we want to make sure we make a change,” Eric Hall said. “We want to give her every opportunity to succeed.”
In March, Hall went into her first NCAA Indoor Championships ranked fourth in the long jump with a season best of 21-5.5. But she failed to make the finals, finishing 12th with a jump of 20-1. She said she felt tired leading up to nationals.
“Throughout the season, I didn’t feel recovered. I obviously wanted to see how everything went at nationals. I wasn’t satisfied with how things turned out. I definitely was disappointed,” Hall said. “I wanted to give it everything I had. I had success in the past at big meets. I was hoping to continue that.”
Hall then came home for an evaluation with Pribish and didn’t score well when he tested her strength.
It was at that point Hall began to talk to her parents about transferring.
“When she came home she had issues with her back and she scored low on his functional movement test,” Eric Hall said. “We couldn’t go back and have her undergo the same training. It may work for others, but it was not working for Kate.”
Kyprianou thinks Hall could be Georgia’s next national title holder.
“The sky is the limit for Kate,” Kyprianou said. “She has a great mindset and knows what she wants.”
Hall is still attending Iowa State, but opted to redshirt this spring. She has been training with Pribish in anticipation of the Olympic Trials July 1-10 in Eugene, Oregon. Last Friday, she competed unattached at the Jim Duncan Invitational at Drake University in Iowa, winning the long jump with a leap of 20-4.5. She feels she’s back on track.
“One of my biggest problems indoors was I wasn’t getting any height,” Hall said. “I was going straight. Chris and I have been doing (plyometrics), hoping that would help.
“When I competed Friday I had height. It was really encouraging. I hadn’t felt that way in a while.”
Deirdre Fleming can be reached at 791-6452 or:
dfleming@pressherald.com
Twitter: FlemingPph
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