Andrea Geubelle was chatting with friends on the final day of Star Track XXVII when someone told the Curtis High School senior that the finals of the girls 100-meter sprint were about to start.

“She told them, ‘No, there’s a wheelchair race first,’ ” Vikings track and field coach Terry Rice said. “But there wasn’t. She scrambled over there, and all the other girls were already warming up. When she got in the blocks, it was the first time I’ve ever really seen panic, fear on her face.”

Geubelle was slow off the starting line but quickly made up the difference.

“When she was about 80 meters out,” Rice said, “she took the lead, and when she crossed the finish line, I remember her exuberance.”

The victory gave Geubelle her third individual state title – she easily won the long jump and triple jump.

Those performances, plus being a standout outside hitter on the Vikings’ volleyball team that won the West Central District tournament and placed fifth at the state tournament, were enough to make Geubelle The News Tribune’s Senior Female Athlete of the Year.

Geubelle entered the state track meet as an overwhelming favorite to win the long and triple jumps. Her leaps of 19 feet, 4 inches, and 40 feet, 113/4 inches, respectively, in those events trounced the competition.

It was the title in the 100 that Geubelle craved so badly. Despite arriving late to the starting line and suffering a poor start, Geubelle edged Bellarmine Prep’s Kelly Jacka at the finish by two hundredths of a second with a time of 11.87 seconds.

“I worked at the 100 so much this whole year,” she said. “Winning would top it all off and prove that the hard work paid off.”

Geubelle knew she was capable of winning the race – maybe even expected to – but others prepared her for defeat.

“After I won (the long and triple jumps) everybody was kind of preparing me if I didn’t win the 100,” she said, “telling me it would be OK, two state titles are still great.”

Geubelle finished her high school track career with five individual state championships. She added to her trophy haul this weekend at the Nike Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., claiming the triple jump title Friday with a mark of 42-101/4 and adding the long jump crown Saturday with a leap of 20-01/2.

She will continue to run and jump at the University of Kansas with an athletic scholarship. That her parents are from Kansas and she has family in the area helped her choose the Jayhawks. She also liked the interaction and instruction she’ll get at KU.

“The coaching out there is great,” she said. “It’s a big team, of course, because it is Division I. But when I went to the University of Nebraska, the team was huge. I’ve always been used to that one-on-one attention because my coach has done that, and that was the key thing I was looking for.”

Geubelle said Curtis jumps coach Nate Wilford saw her walking after practice as a ninth-grader and immediately noticed her potential. She had been running the 400, 800 and 1,600, but Wilford saw something else.

“He literally saw me walking after practice one day. He said ‘You’re bouncy when you walk. You need to come jump,’ “ Geubelle said. “From the jumps came the sprints.”

It wasn’t until her sophomore season that Geubelle took jumping seriously.

“I started talking to Nate in 10th grade,” she said, “and it’s a good thing I did.”

Doug Pacey: 253-597-8271

doug.pacey@thenewstribune.com

blogs.thenewstribune.com/preps