Lancers’ Nunn serious at takeoff

-- Nikki Nunn won the long and triple jumps at the recent Central Virginia meet. For leaper extraordinaire Nikki Nunn, it seems not even the sky is the limit.

No matter how far her rivals might jettison through space, Nunn vows to travel farther.

Manchester High School's 5-6 ("I wish my legs were longer," she says) takeoff artist is fueled by flesh and bones, and maybe a bit of attitude.

"I'm determined to beat them," she said. "And if they're beating me, I get angry. . . . and fly to get them on the last jump."

Shaking his head, Lancers coach Gene Bowen agreed: "Nikki is very competitive. She doesn't like to lose."

The oft-airborne junior, the defending Central Region indoor long jump champion with a personal best 18-10, answers to two nicknames: "Vanilla Latte" and "Nike" (like the sneaker "because it rhymes with Nikki," she says).

Meeting: At the recent Central Virginia meet at the Ashe Center, where Nunn won the long and triple jumps, she got to meet Manchester record holder (19-1) Nicole Kimbrough.

"She was so cool and very motivational," Nunn said.

Kimbrough, now lives in New Jersey and operates a health club called "Get Fit with Nic." She was a standout at the University of Virginia, where she still holds the program's fifth-best long jump effort (20-7).

"We're both Nikkis - got to keep that going," said Nunn, who is as quick to laugh as she is to sprint down a runway.

She states her goals as "high 19's by the end of this year; 20's as a senior."

Bowen said, "Let's take it a foot at a time."

Centreville's Brittni Finch set the Group AAA indoor mark of 19-10½ in 2006.

Multitalented: Nunn is the real deal in the long and triple jumps, a strong high jumper and a threat to win any middle-distance race.

Last spring, she was second in the Dominion District 400-meter dash to graduated teammate Kacen Delphin.

"I think she can go 58 [seconds]," Bowen said.

Nunn never has done offseason track. This past fall, she earned second-team all-district honors for field hockey.

"You do a lot of running in field hockey," she said.

Etc.: Nunn was a soccer player until taking up track at Bailey Bridge Middle School through coach Dana Walker.

She's the latest in what seems an endless stream of sprinter/jumpers arriving from Bailey Bridge.

"I've been blessed," Bowen said.

In fact, Nunn's stiffest jump competition, locally, may come from teammates Candice Hairston, Erica Perkins and Desiree Russell (region 100 champ).

An only child, Nunn was asked from where she got her considerable bounce.

"No one ran track but me," she said. "I think I created my own gene pool."