FORKS — McKinnon Hanson doesn’t consider herself a perfectionist.
“My friends would probably say that about me, though,” the soft-spoken Forks High School senior said from home Monday, three days after earning the top girls high jump mark in the entire state at all levels.
Hanson, who owns three school track records, is the first Forks female athlete to win an individual state championship and she is the first Forks athlete to earn a state record, according to her coach, Ashley Watson.
She also has a grade-point average of 3.98.
“A little less than perfection,” Hanson said.
Her friends are probably right. But it is that drive for perfection that amazes her head track coach.
“McKinnon is the greatest female athlete I have ever coached,” Watson said. “She can do anything, and she is only 17 years old. She is just a tremendous athlete.”
Watson is no rookie when it comes to coaching high school girls. He has coached track for 35 years, 14 at Forks.
Hanson, a three-sport athlete, rewrote the record books with a height of 5 feet, 7 inches at the state Class 2A state championships Friday at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. The second-place jumper had to settle for 5-5, which would have broken the previous record on its own.
The state 2A mark was 5-4, shared by eight athletes from 1998 until 2003.
The next best mark in state for 2004 was 5-6, the winning high-jump height for both the Class 4A and 3A state meets.
“McKinnon destroyed the other girls at state,” Watson said. “She was in a zone. She didn’t miss until 5-8.”
