Ferguson Enjoys Her First Ever Indoor Track State Championship Appearance

Bridget Ferguson’s take away from her first experience at the New York State Indoor Track and Field Championships was simple — it was fun.

And that’s all the Southampton senior was really going for Saturday at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island. With fierce competition in her main event, the high jump, Ferguson didn’t set any lofty goals for herself. She wanted to have fun and enjoy the moment, try her best to set a new personal best and possibly earn All-State honors. Ferguson reached 4 feet 10 inches on Saturday, a little off from her personal best and school record of 5 feet 2 inches set at the state qualifier a few weeks back. But she was okay with that.

“I wasn’t holding any expectations for myself,” she said. “My main goal was to PR, and while that didn’t happen, I’m not upset. I really was just happy to be there with the other girls, happy to watch everyone run. It was definitely a cool experience. Winter track is the hardest sport to make states in, so I really was just happy to be there.

“Really, what I was thinking about the entire time was track is life for these girls,” she continued. “And I guess I would consider myself a year-round track athlete during school, but they really are year-round track athletes. And props to them, they really were amazing to watch. Watching the guys was really cool too, but the competition is very, very fierce, no denying that. Again, I was just super-psyched to just go and experience it all.”

There were a few curve balls thrown the athletes’ way, particularly for the high jumpers. Due to the tight confines on the track at Ocean Breeze, the mats for the high jump had to be moved twice because it was interfering with another event. That required about an hour delay in the event really getting underway.

Also, officials wouldn’t let the student-athletes have access to their phones or any type of technology, which meant Ferguson couldn’t listen to music in between jumps, something that’s become a big mental motivator for her. The athletes are typically allowed to at least listen to music at county meets.

“I definitely use my music as a way to block everything out, it’s a big part of my routine. But in the high jump, it may sound weird, you’re not really supposed to think, you’re just supposed to do it, so it definitely didn’t affect me physically. I just think to not let us listen to music was a bit strange. It helps the athletes block out what’s going on around them, and I’d say it definitely threw me off a little bit, being a crucial part of my routine, but I was able to talk to the girls around us and that was fun.”

In order for Ferguson to have been All-State, she would have needed to have her best meet ever, being that the top nine girls all jumped higher than 5 feet 2 inches. Camryn Cole, a junior from Webster Schroeder High School, reached 5 feet 7 inches in less attempts than Allegany-Limestone junior Angelina Napoleon to win the gold in the high jump.

Both Ferguson and her head coach Eddie Arnold knew the competition would be so stiff which led to what their expectations were going into the meet.

“Everyone always asks, what were her goals? How did she do?” Arnold said. “Sometimes you can’t always measure how a kid does by the numbers. She came up to me at the end of the meet and said, ‘I had fun.’ That in and of itself meant she had a great season.”

Those expectations will almost certainly change this spring, though. Ferguson is a two-time All-County high jumper and a Small Schools Champion outdoors who would have reached the state meet for the first time last spring had it not have been for the pandemic, which canceled all state meets last year.

“Super, super excited for the spring,” she said. “I’m excited to have a lot of the senior girls coming over from the basketball team. I’m good friends with a lot of them so it’ll be a lot of fun having them back. Everyone for whatever reason always seems to peak in the spring and so I’m definitely going to be looking to go to states and doing well there and trying to break the school record of 5’4”.”