Any athlete or team always wants to be at their best when the postseason comes around.

For Northampton pole vaulter Lexi Barrall, her season started off strong, but entering the East Penn Conference meet was a bit of a different story.

Barrall said she PR’ed [Personal Record] clearing 10 feet in the first few meets of the regular season, but then got stuck at that mark for a while.

“I knew I could clear 10-6, it was just a matter of doing it in a meet,” Barrall told the Press this week. “It was stressful going into both leagues and districts. At leagues, I was just all over the place in warm-ups, and my first few jumps with the bar was not looking promising.”

But Barrall said she was able to clear her head a little, and focus on her jumps and the corrections her coaches were giving her. Barrall won the league meet clearing 10-0, beating out three other girls (Whitehall’s Savanah Rivers, Pleasant Valley’s Mary Michael and NHS teammate Michayla Davidson) who cleared 9-0.

Next up for Barrall was last week’s district meet, but the experience from the EPC meet didn’t necessarily calm her nerves.

“Districts was more stressful than leagues,” Barrall said. “Everyone knew it was going to be extremely close. I knew I had to have a clear head from the start if I wanted to PR and medal, and I knew I had to be clean with the first few bars, getting them on my first attempt.”

Barrall said she was excited after she cleared 10-6 and realized she was a district champion. But Barrall was able to better the 10-6 mark, and cleared 11-0.

“I was not expecting to clear 11-0 and the feeling I had when I looked up and saw that the cross bar was still there is really indescribable,” Barrall said. “I was satisfied and proud with my performance with 10-6, and clearing 11-0 and PR’ing by two bars definitely made it a thousand-times better. I couldn’t have asked for better weather that day.”

Now Barrall is ready for the next stage of her postseason journey. Just a junior, Barrall is making her first trip to Shippensburg, at least as a competitor. However she admits she’ll miss some of the girls she has competed against the last couple of weeks.

“It is upsetting that Mary [Michael], Alex [Guardo, of Stroudsburg] and I can’t all be there competing together because we are all good friends and we definitely push each other to do better and jump higher,” she said.

“I’ve never competed at states but I have watched it for multiple years due to my brother and sister competing there when they were in high school. I’m super excited for it and I can’t wait to see what it brings, although I know I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for all my coaches.”