Jaimie Cavinee: One in a million, or more specifically, one in twenty thousand

Jaimie Cavinee: One in a million- or more specifically, one in 20,000.

by Amber Dixon

The odds of stumbling upon your long-lost best friend from kindergarten in a college town such as Athens are pretty slim, but somehow I beat the odds and was accidentally reunited with an old acquaintance- from kindergarten.

Age	20
Height	5’8”
Favorite Color	Purple
Pets	4 cats and a dog
Hometown	Ashville, Ohio

A chance meeting

Millions of people have gone through college, and have experienced all that goes along with it. But through mere chance, I had a chance to personally get to know someone who is truly living the life of a college student- Jaimie Cavinee. We met in kindergarten, but in a unexpected turn of events, I was transferred to another school, and one day, as I walking across the lawn of West Green, I saw someone that I recognized- and it was her! After chatting for a few minutes, we exchange phone numbers and agree to meet for lunch at a later date, and I took advantage of this opportunity to not only catch up on lost time, but to use this opportunity as an informal interview. Since we were young, she has been up to a lot of amazing things, and has had many accomplishments!

From grade one to grade eleven

Cavinee at Ohio Women's Team Challenge

While I had been plugging away in a school district thirty miles away, Jaimie had been studying hard, and playing harder. She had always been athletic, playing softball from age 8 to 13, running cross country from age 6 to 16, and track from age 12 to 18. Her tall and slender frame made her a perfect candidate from pole-vaulting, and with much training and perseverance she beat her high school’s record for greatest height reached and raised it to 10 feet. “I grew to about 5’8” during the summer of my sophomore year, and until I started pole-vaulting, I was kind of like a crane- all elbows and knees. Pole-vaulting has really helped my coordination, that’s for sure!” she told me during our interview/lunch date.

Cavinee at Marietta Meet

Pole-vaulting and Jaimie

 Jaimie understood the responsibilities that go with becoming an adult, the main one being that you pay for everything yourself- so instead of kicking back and enjoying her senior year, she opted for the post-secondary program her high school offered, but the track season of that year, she tore her ACL during a meet, taking her out of her favorite sport for a good eight months. When she was fully rehabilitated, she had graduated high school and was living in Athens as a freshman. “It really sucked- the meet after I beat TVHS’ (Teays Valley High School) record, I tore my ACL and was benched before I could even try for 10’6”. It was just my luck.”

The college experience

Cavinee at the Ohio Women's Team Challenge Meet

The tall blonde from Ashville aspires to be an Athletic Trainer, and is currently a sophomore in Ohio University’s Athletic Training program. She juggles school, track (indoor and spring), and working part-time in her hometown’s Bob Evans restaurant. She maintains a 3.6 grade point average, and has since beat her personal record for pole-vaulting with the height of 10’6”, attained at Mid-American Conference Championships at Bowling Green University in February.

Pole-vaulting for beginners

Jaimie confided to me some tricks to attaining such great heights: upper-body workouts, internal confidence, and “the bend and snap!” This last one gave me a giggle, because Legally Blonde is one of my personal favorites, and when does it really work in real life anyway, but her serious features made me swallow my laughter. She explained to me the way the pole bends with the vaulter’s weight, and when the vaulter reaches a certain point, the pole reverts back to straightness with a snap.