KU Track and Field Adds Top-Ranked Vaulter to 2010 Recruiting Class
Feb. 19, 2010
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
Demi Payne, a pole-vaulter out of New Bruanfels, Texas, will join the Kansas track and field team as a freshman in 2010. Payne has had great success as a high school athlete and will add depth to an already impressive Jayhawk recruiting class.
Payne was the Texas 5A state champion in the pole vault in 2009, as well as the 2009 Texas 5A region champion. During her junior year, she also captured the gold at the Fredericksburg Regional Qualifier and Ranger Relays, while finishing fourth overall at the highly competitive Texas Relays.
Not only is she one of the top athletes within in the state of Texas, but Payne has had ample experience at the national level as well, having competed at the 2008 USATF Junior Olympic National Youth Championships and the 2008 Great Southwest Championships.
She currently has the fifth-best mark of all seniors in the nation at 12-11 feet. That mark ranks eighth among all prep athletes in the country.
Demi Payne is the daughter of Bill Payne, a famous U.S. pole vaulter, who is 13th on America’s all-time bests list for his vault of 5.86 meters (19-02.75 feet), which he set in Houston in 1991. Bill Payne won a silver medal at the 1991 Summer Universiade and competed at the 1995 World Championships.
