Free State triple jumper Auna Childress crashes into the pit on her final attempt during the 6A Regionals on Thursday, May 18, 2017 at Free State High School.

At the beginning of the track and field season, Free State High’s coaches asked if anybody had experience with the triple jump.

Freshman Auna Childress raised her hand.

To that point, Childress competed once in the triple jump at West Middle School. Mostly, she was a sprinter and long jumper.

“I was just like, ‘I mean this might be fun, so might as well do it for Free State,'” Childress said.

Less than three months later, Childress is preparing for this weekend’s Class 6A state meet at Wichita State, seeded sixth in the triple jump after winning a regional title. The event will begin at 4:45 p.m. Friday.

Even without much experience or technique, Childress quickly found out she was a natural.

At the second meet of the season, she matched Free State’s school record, set in 1999 by Joyia Chadwick, with a leap of 35 feet, 10 inches.

“Honestly, I didn’t even think I was going to make varsity, period,” said Childress, who qualified for state in the 4×400 relay with Cameryn Thomas, Emma Hertig and Alauna Hawkins. “I thought I was just going to be on JV and just jump.”

In the third meet of the season, Free State’s Barrier Breakers, Childress had the school record on her mind.

She admits she’s nervous before each meet, but she was “flipping out” this time. Her first two jumps were around the 34-foot range, well short of her goal.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t do this,'” Childress remembered. “But then my friends and coaches are like, ‘Auna, you’ve got this in the bag. You know you can do this.'”

On her last jump of the Barrier Breakers meet, Childress broke the school record with a jump of 36 feet, 1.5 inches.

Free State doesn’t feature a long history of triple jumpers. It’s an event where athletes sprint down a runway, then complete three phases of the triple jump before landing in the sand pit: the hop, step and jump.

Childress, shorter than some of her top competitors, creates power in each phase of her jumps by using her speed and background in the long jump.

“It’s such a different, unique event that takes so much technical skill to be able to do that,” Free State coach Jordan Rose said. “You generally don’t have a lot of kids that try that.”

At regionals last week, Childress topped her own school record by another inch at 36-2.5. She won the event by more than a foot.

It’s only the second time she’s taken first place at a meet this season, improving her consistency to near her top marks.

“What mostly helps is the coaches,” said Childress, spending most of her time working with assistant coach Adam Leitel. “He’s just like, ‘You’re just a freshman. You have a long time to go.’ He calms me down because I get really nervous.”

There’s improvements Childress wants to make to her technique. She said she doesn’t touch the boards on the runway, meaning she extra space to step forward prior to her takeoff.

But she’s proud of her progress.

Heading to state in her first full season of competing in the triple jump, she’s just excited to experience the scene and see how she compares to the state’s top competitors.

“I don’t want to try to put so much pressure on myself to getting a certain amount or get this place or whatever,” Childress said. “My goal is to give it my all, do my best.”