Roberts sets new school, personal records

Last weekend at the New York Road Runners College Saturday Night, sophomore Monique Roberts broke a school and personal record with a 1.82m high jump, earning first place and contributing 10 points to the women’s total team score. The outcome also trumps her 1.81m jump at the last tri-meet.

Although Roberts has a manifest desire to crush the competition, she chiefly intends to fulfill her own capabilities. She also has accountability to her coach and teammates in mind.

“Generally I just don’t want to go out there and embarrass myself,” Roberts said, although she is in little danger of doing so. But ultimately, she adds, “No one’s going to carry you over the bar.”

Self-motivation has been key to Roberts’ success. She offers vacation time from school as an instance in which this initiative is critical. Unlike some other teams, the track and field team does not go on training trips or train extensively together during school breaks. This January, Roberts voluntarily returned to school early to begin training on her own.

“Home’s going to be there when I’m done,” she said.

Encouragement from family and others is also constructive.

“I’ll get texts from my old track team,” Roberts said. “It’s cool that it excites so many people.”

Roberts’ winning strides can be traced back to a fateful day in the late 1990s, when Sheri Mitchell enrolled her energetic daughter in a local track program. In a suburb of Syracuse, N.Y., where they still live, Roberts continued running throughout middle and high school and tried her hand at volleyball. Before coming to Columbia, she was named to the All-Central New York Girls Track and Field Team, ranked fourth in the U.S. high jump in 2008, and won the sectional state qualifier in the pentathlon.

Now a Barnard sophomore, Roberts, 6-foot-0, carries her success in both sports with her here, devoting the fall to volleyball and reserving the winter and spring seasons for track and field. Last year, with a high jump of 1.81m (or 5’11.25”) at the NCAA East Regionals, Roberts earned second place, broke a school record, and advanced to the NCAA Championship preliminaries. She also finished second in the high jump at the 2009 Outdoor Heptagonal Championships, and earned second-team all-Ivy.

Since high school, Roberts has kept herself motivated by setting goals. Back then, she ran on the North Stars track team.

Now, just before the jump, “I have to find someway to turn off my mind, and still have confidence,” she said.

When it comes time to talk hurdles, Roberts becomes uncharacteristically quiet, suggesting there may be something special in store for the season ahead. Off the track, Roberts is scaling the personal hurdles endemic to athletes. Being on the team carries social pros and cons.

“I see people at dinner, but I don’t go out as much,” Roberts said.

Camaraderie is an important source of support, even when tackling diet challenges.

“We’re really honest with each other,” Roberts says of her teammates. “Eating together makes it easier to resist the temptation of pudding in John Jay.”

Roberts benefits from years of experience balancing athletics with schoolwork. A self-proclaimed “television freak,” she is even able to indulge her love of soap operas, Gossip Girl, and One Tree Hill, catching up via YouTube daily.

Her enthusiasm and zeal to fulfill her capabilities carries over into the classroom. In both realms, Roberts says, “I always want to do more.” She is currently veering toward a major in art history but is open to possibilities for her academic and professional future. As to how far she will take running or volleyball after graduation, Roberts says she will just wait and see.

As far as this season is concerned, the last two weeks bode extremely well for women’s track and field. Injury-free and feeling good, Roberts muses of the future, “If I did 6’2… no, 6’3, I would lose my mind.

Tags: Sports, Caroline Casey, Courtesy of Columbia University Athletics, Athlete of the Week, Track and Field