Track's Erin Sugrue

If you can jump five-and-a-half feet, you can play basketball without worrying about being stuffed. You can look over crowds at parades and reach the top shelf at grocery stores.

But it you're Erin Sugrue, five-and-a-half feet is simply too short.

Sugrue is one of those people who exudes an aura of great athletic ability. When you watch her, you can tell she won't be second-best.

The Harvard women's track and field captain has dominated the indoor track season like few have done before her.

Sugrue is coming off perhaps her finest meet, the Greater Boston Indoor Track and Field Championships, in which she won the high jump, the triple jump and the 60-yd. hurdles. She also set new Harvard and meet records for the pentathlon with a whopping 3428 points.

Sugrue's record-setting performance in the five-event contest in even more remarkable because she hadn't competed in a pentathlon since she was a senior in high school.

"The coaches have always been toying with the idea and I've always resisted, especially now with my [high] jumping going so well. It's really not good that I do so many other events. I came down [last] Tuesday and they said, 'could you come over here, we'd like to talk to you about the pentathlon,"' Sugrue said.

Despite breaking a meet record set by B.C. pentathlete Susan Goode in 1984, the multi-talented Sugrue modestly added, "It's the kind of event where if you do one or two things well and the rest fairly well, you'll win."

Sugrue has done much more than one or two things well.

She presently holds, in addition to the pentathlon mark, Harvard records in the triple and high jump. She set a new triple jump record of 38-ft., 1/2-in. against Northeastern on January 10, which she broke six days later against B.C. and B.U. with a jump of 38-ft., 5-in.

It is the high jump record, however, of which she is most proud.

Sugrue broke the record, originally held by Jackie Grim at 5-ft., 6-in., in December of 1985, in her first indoor season.

She's been setting a new record every couple of months ever since. Finally, last December 7, she became the first Harvard woman to clear six feet.

"That [record] will stay a lot longer than the triple jump. Six feet is a barrier line. There are a lot of women who can do 5-ft., 8-in., but six feet is a barrier that not many people will get to," Sugrue says.

Sugrue has always been able to clear a lot of barriers. At Westwood High School, the Massachusetts native was an All-Star forward under current Harvard basketball Coach Kathy Delaney Smith and ran spring track.

Sugrue played basketball for Harvard in her freshman and sophomore years. She excelled defensively, playing in 50 to 51 games and averaging 3.5 points-per-game.

"I loved it, but college ball is a different game. After sophomore year, I said to myself that I could either go on playing for two years, trying to earn that starting position, trying to just reach that point where I'd be satisfied with my game or it I didn't, I'd go crazy," Sugrue said.

"I gave it a lot of thought, but I couldn't take the chance of playing two years, being unhappy with myself," Sugrue said, "but I do miss the team."

Sugrue also ran spring track in her first two years, and she said that was a factor in her decision to drop basketball.

"I'd come out in April and I'd furiously try to catch up to everybody who had been working out since September. I wasn't running as well as I had been running in high school and I was really frustrated. By late May, I could see myself improving and the season would be over," Sugrue said.

Surprise Success

Sugrue's sudden success came as a great surprise to her.

"When I started running track year round last year, I was shocked when my jumping was improving. Five-ft., 6-in. one meet, five-seven, five-eight, five-10. I was just stunned," Sugrue said, "and it was all because I had done the full training."

Sugrue's work ethic and ability to win in so many events has made her a coach's dream.

"She's very exciting to coach because she can translate our coaching from words into actions," Harvard track Coach Frank Haggerty said.

"She's tremendous," Assistant Coach Walter Johnson said. "She can incorporate what we tell her into her performance right away."

Part of Sugrue's jumping improvement can be traced to a more relaxed approach to the sport.

"I used to get so uptight for every meet. I used to get really upset very easily. I tended to be a perfectionist and that was sometimes detrimental to my performance," Sugrue said. "So, now I'm trying to relax."

Sugrue's improvement has rubbed off on the rest of the team.

"She's not an individual player, which is really easy in track. She's definitely team-oriented," sophomore runner Jackie Ball said, "and she's inspiring."

"I like the team atmosphere," Sugrue says of being the captain, "and I try to do a lot just by setting a good example."

One of the ways she sets a good example is academically. Sugrue, an English concentrator, learned from basketball the importance of self-discipline in her studies. "It made me realize I had to set priorities for myself," she said.

Sugrue has already qualified in the high jump for nationals, which will take place this March in Oklahoma City.

"I'm really not trying to put too much pressure on that. I'd like to jump at least six feet," Sugrue said.

Sugrue has not ruled out the possibility of jumping higher. She said that she is considering going to Europe to compete on the high-jump circuit for a year after she graduates.

"I feel I'm really raw in high jumping because I really just started jumping well about a year ago and I feel like there is so much left to learn," Sugrue said. "I always have the idea in the back of my mind of mind of giving it a year."

"I'm just having fun," Sugrue added. "If you're not having fun in what you're doing, if it becomes a job, then I don't care how good you are or how good you want to become, you should just stop."

If that's the case, Erin Sugrue won't stop until she's cleared 10 feet.