Southampton's Lombardi-Benvenuto Closes Out Season at New York State Track and Field Championships

High jumpers call them “steps” and they are very much a blueprint to success. If they are off in any way, it can mess with a jumper’s sense of space and direction.

Ever since recording her all-time best jump of 5 feet 3 inches at the Suffolk County Class B Championships last month, which hit the state super standard and qualified her for the New York State Track and Field Championships, Southampton junior Livia Lombardi-Benvenuto hasn’t felt comfortable with her steps. That issue continued this weekend at the state championships in Middletown on Saturday, and it led to her tying for 45th place with Ardsley sophomore Gabrielle An, after both cleared 4 feet 9 inches in the same number of attempts.

Lombardi-Benvenuto explained that steps are how far away each jumper is from the bar and how far to the left, or right, each jumper is, and that they can be, and in most cases are, different for every high jumper. Lombardi-Benvenuto starts her steps much closer to the bar than most, which is a little odd for someone so new to the sport, she said, and that could have played a part the past few weeks.

Lombardi-Benvenuto, who is very new to the sport, having just picked it up this March, admitted she was frustrated by this weekend’s performance.

“I think I had wrong measurements down since the state qualifier. I had certain numbers in my head before counties, I used those numbers and that’s when I had my best jump. I remeasured my steps after counties and something was completely different,” she explained. “And when your steps are down, that can bring your confidence down, and that plays a big part of it, too.

“For me, I felt I was too close,” Lombardi-Benvenuto continued. “I kept trying to fix it by moving my steps back, but when you move back, your run up to the bar is different because the foot you jump right at the spot where you lift may slow down, so you don’t get as much height. Having a shorter run up always felt great for me, but I was not as comfortable as I had been these past few months. Usually, I have a gut feeling when I’m at my spot, but I didn’t know how to fix it, and you only get one minute at states to figure it all, and it’s done in front of a lot of people.”

Southampton girls track head coach Eddie Arnold is a firm believer in the saying, “You have to visit the experience to understand the experience,” and that maybe the state championships weren’t the best setting for Lombardi-Benvenuto to hit her first wall in the sport. Still, it was a great experience for her, Arnold said, and that she now has a year to improve.

“Basically, it just didn’t work out today. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is,” he said not long after Lombardi-Benvenuto’s final attempt of the day. “I’m happy that she was here. She had a great season. She has nothing to be ashamed of. I’m looking forward to another year with her, and the winter, which I think will help.”

Being that she just started competing in the high jump, Lombardi-Benvenuto didn’t compete in the indoor season and is very much looking forward to this winter. In fact, while she wants to take a brief time away because she thinks it’ll help, Lombardi-Benvenuto said she’s very much looking forward to getting back out on the track in a few weeks to rediscover her steps and continue to improve in the sport.

“This is something I want to pursue, that I want to figure out,” she said. “I’m in a funk right now and I want to do my best to get out of it. So I’ll be spending all summer trying to do just that. I don’t think not doing anything would be the best thing, then trying to start all over again in the winter, so I’ll be training and weight lifting all summer. I just need time to regroup, trying to figure out how to calm myself down, and I think building up my routine before I jump will help. I just have a lot of room to grow. I just don’t want to give up on it.

“I do think I need a second,” she added. “The last couple of weeks after state quals have been stressful. There has been a lot of thinking and getting in my head about it, learning who my competitors are, what other high jumpers are doing. I do think that once it was all over I was a bit relieved. Now I get a chance to relax, start new, and I have two new seasons to work on it that I’m very excited about.”

Arnold said that Lombardi-Benvenuto has been “sky’s the limit since day one,” and he’s very much expecting her to bounce back strong.

“Every step back is a comeback. This was a minor setback for her,” he said. “I think the nerves started getting to her, as far as expecting to be that level every meet, and in high jump you can have highs and lows, bad days and good days. Good days bring happiness, bad days bring experience.”