Equal Competitiveness Keeps Newby Sisters Close

Kari and Gina Newby are on different paths in their post-Coeur d’Alene High School life, although neither drifted far from the track.

Kari is running distance at Linfield College while Gina is scaling new heights pole vaulting at the University of Idaho. Both expect to be top contenders in their sport no matter how long it takes or where they have to go to get there.

Kari spent last semester running in Central America as an exchange student in Costa Rica. Gina put in the miles between her family home in Hayden Lake and the Kibbie Dome, making the trip more times then her father cares to count.

Kari is quiet and fluent in Spanish. Gina is extroverted and determined.

Kari likes vanilla. Gina favors chocolate smothered in hot fudge topped with chocolate sprinkles.

The two always have been opposites including when they starred in track at Coeur d’Alene High School, although their competitiveness was equal. It’s something they say keeps them close.

“She wanted to get away from any event I was in,” said Kari. “That is the way it has always been.”

Gina decided not to follow in Kari’s long-striding footsteps last summer when she chose the University of Idaho for college.

“I wanted to go somewhere where I could walk-on and get better coaching in the vault,” she said. “Plus I don’t think I could go to any place bigger. I like the personal attention you get at smaller schools.”

While Gina was surviving her first year of campus shock, Kari discovered culture shock in Costa Rica.

“You have to speak fluent Spanish to get along well,” she said. “Most of the people are really nice and appreciate that you know the language. It shows you’re making an effort to be a part of the culture.”

Kari had no problem communicating, but she did suffer going through her first year of not being able to compete.

“I would have lost a year of eligibility,” she said. “They wanted me to, but I couldn’t do anything official. They do that so colleges there don’t stack the deck.”

Kari was allowed to work with the team to stay in shape. The track coach gave her some drills and she participated in the band playing the flute. That, too, came with notable differences.

`The musical scale here is alphabetical,” she said. “There it’s do-re-mi.”

Gina practices six days a week pole vaulting. Although she is a talented runner, the challenge the pole vault offered came with instant gratification.

“I like having to do about 56 moves in two seconds,” she said. “Pole-vaulting is something I have wanted to do since the eighth grade. In high school it was only an exhibition sport. I was ecstatic when I learned I could do it at the U of I.”

She also enjoys being on a small team where she can get more one-on-one training.

“We just started breaking it down,” she said. “There is only two of us there most of the time, so when one jumps the other observes.”

Kari returned from Costa Rica for Christmas and spent a lot of the time training to get back into competitive shape. The Newbys are a family of athletes with younger brother Travis already breaking cross-country records at Coeur d’Alene High and Mindy being the fourth in the family to letter as a freshman. The youngest, Piper, also competes in cross-country at the junior high.

“Our mother (Kris) started it,” said Kari. “When we lived in Spokane, there used to be a cross-country team at Hamblen Elementary.”

“You’d run on recess,” said Gina. “For every lap you would get stamped. If you had five stamps, you got a stick of licorice.”

When they moved to Idaho, Kris started the program at Hayden Elementary. Through it, the Newbys’ love for running grew.

“I will run all my life,” said Kari. “I want to break my personal records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and go to nationals. I will compete until I can’t any more.”

Gina’s goal?

“I want to break 12 feet and be on the traveling team,” she said. “They don’t take athletes unless they know they are going to score points for the team.”

But there is also another reason for Gina to break 12 feet - the best reason she can come up with.

“When I do it, she smiled. “I’m going to treat myself to a chocolate, chocolate sundae.