Nikki Cunha article (MA)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_3717274

Cunha comes out running - and vaulting - for Tewksbury
By LYNN WORTHY, Sun Staff

TEWKSBURY -- Almost nobody comes straight out of the blocks in the first few weeks of track and hits their goals right off the bat. It's a building up process.

Girls track

That being said, there are going to be quite a few female track athletes with their work cut out for them if they're going to build up enough to catch Tewksbury sophomore Nikki Cunha.

Cunha won the pole vault, the 400-meter dash, and anchored the winning 4x100-meter relay team on her way to being selected the Most Outstanding Athlete at yesterday's 11th Annual Tewksbury Invitational.

"I"m excited," said Cunha, who ran the 400 meters in 60.15 seconds and cleared 8-feet in the pole vault. Last year by the end of the season she had cleared nine and a half feet in the pole vault. This year she'll be looking for similar improvement and said she wants to get her 400 time down to 57 seconds.

"Last year at this time I wasn't even clearing six, and it's just because it's early in the season and we don't have an indoor pole vault," she said. "So I was just trying to get back into it."