Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: Menlo’s Summer Young

Young missed her first two attempts at 5-6, a height she’d cleared several times earlier this season. This was different, though. The chilly Friday night at Buchanan High School during the qualifying trial was such a factor, her father Steve gave her a new parka Saturday to help combat the elements. Still, as she stared down the runway, she realized she was shaking, not just from the cold, but because she was dealing with that great powerful motivator — fear.

“That’s when I really started to freak out,” Young said. “I started shaking. … I wanted to prove that I could do it. So, I just remember thinking: ‘Take a big breath … and just go for it.’”

Young has been named Daily Journal Athlete of the Week not because she made that third and final attempt at 5-6, but what she did after it. Yes, she cleared 5-6, with plenty of distance between her and the bar. The Menlo senior would go on to claim second place in the event, to climb to the penultimate level of the state podium.

Perhaps the only person not supremely impressed with her performance was Young herself, who already had thoughts of a championship dancing in those steely eyes before she even finished tumbling on the mat after clearing 5-6.

“After I made the 5-6, I remember thinking: ‘OK, you’re winning this,’” Young said.

Had someone told Young this time last year she was fated to compete for a state title, she probably would have laughed. Not that her junior season wasn’t good. It was quite great. She took second place at both the 2023 West Bay Athletic League Championships and at the Central Coast Section championships, advancing to the state meet where she ultimately took 10th place overall.

The thing is, Young’s junior season was her first season ever as a competitive high jumper, and her first season on the track team in general. At 5-8, Young has been a starter for the Menlo girls’ varsity basketball team for the last two years. It wasn’t until someone realized she could jump and touch the basketball rim that she might be suited for high jumping. That’s when her track career took off.

Driving across town to Buchanan High School for Saturday’s finals, she borrowed some mojo from the Menlo basketball team. One of the rally songs for Menlo hoops throughout their CCS Division IV championship season was “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” so that’s what she and her family listened to in the car on the drive to her date with destiny.

“So, I just kept the tradition going,” Young said. “We had luck in basketball, so I figured maybe it would help me.”

Then, when she arrived at Buchanan, and found out she was jumping in the No. 8 spot in the field of 12 finalists — “Which I said was lucky,” Young said — she knew she was in for a big night.

You see, No. 8 is the number her father Steve wore for the San Francisco 49ers during his 15-year Pro Football Hall of Fame career. Yes, Young is the sweet child o’ that Steve Young. And she has definitely inherited the heart of a champion.

“Yeah, that was definitely my goal I’d say walking in,” Young said. “Everybody walking in wants to win. So, that was my end goal.”

While Young settled for second place, there were several striking things about her final successful jump at 5-8. For starters, it matched her personal record from earlier in the season. She also knocked it out on her first attempt.

“When I cleared it, the relief that fell over me was insane,” Young said.

The most striking thing, though, was 5-8 was the same height at which Ventura senior Valentina Fakrogha topped out to claim the state high jump championship. Both Young and Fakrogha missed at 5-9. The championship was settled via the tiebreaker rules, with Young’s two misses at 5-6 determining the title. Fakrogha missed just once at that height, her last miss until 5-9.

Obviously, Young was disappointed.

“Of course,” Menlo head coach Jorge Chen said, “because she’s like a champion, like her dad. Of course she was disappointed. The high jump, the other girl, she’s been high jumping forever and Summer has only been high jumping for 13 months. Nothing to be sad about.”

While Young’s Menlo career is technically over, she still has an upcoming event as part of her 2024 season, as she will compete in the Nike Outdoor Nationals at Hayward Field on the campus of University of Oregon. As fate would have it, the meet will be held Father’s Day weekend, June 12-15.

“I’m excited to compete there,” Young said, “because I know I’m capable of more.”