On Robbie Grace's first long jump try of the season, she became just the second female athlete in Minnesota high school history to break the 20-foot boundary.
Her leap of 20 feet, 1 inch was one-quarter inch short of the mark set by Anna Keefer of St. Michael-Albertville in 2017. It was the only time Keefer, who broke the former record by over 3 inches, surpassed 20 feet in high school.
Two years later Grace, who the Class 1A long jump in 2018, has set that mark as a goal for the season. As the weather warms up, the Wake Forest-bound senior looks to put herself one spot above her sophomore year "idol."
Keefer, who earned second-team All-America honors in the long jump as a freshman last season at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said if Grace is "as driven as I was at that time, then she deserves it."
There's plenty of evidence of that drive. Like Keefer, Grace gave up other sports to focus solely on jumping and running. Grace played volleyball and was a captain of the basketball team last year. With more time for training, Grace started focusing on working out more in the weight room. She continued to participate in Track Minnesota, an offseason club, and national meets around the country to prepare for a final year of high school track and field.
To finetune her form, Grace worked with Keefer's mother, Tiffini Schuebel-Keefer, who also worked at Track Minnesota, in small group sessions after last year's track season was over.
Schuebel-Keefer, who coached her daughter and is currently an assistant coach at St. Michael-Albertville, said she considers herself good at helping athletes with great potential who 'just need a little bit of polishing, or help, or ideas."
With Grace, she said, "as a coach working with her, she really didn't have a drive like, 'I really want to get good at long jump.' And then now, I feel like I can see she's really put some heart in, and now I can see the difference in her jumps."