Lauren, left, and Meaghan Martinez team up as one of the top sister-sister prep sports duos in all of New Mexico.
Photo courtesy of the Martinez family
They fly through the air with the greatest of ease.
Eldorado (Albuquerque) senior twins
Lauren Martinez and
Meaghan Martinez have made a big splash on the New Mexico swimming and track scenes since they were freshmen.
Both have parlayed great gymnastics backgrounds into outstanding success in diving and pole vaulting.
Lauren Martinez pole vaulting.
Photo courtesy of the Martinez family
Lauren, who is 5-foot-4, won the state diving championship as a sophomore and was second last year. She also has won the state pole vault title three years in a row, setting a state meet record on each occasion. Meaghan placed second in state diving as a sophomore and third last year.
Even though the state does not offer gymnastics as a high school sport, the twins started in club gymnastics at the tender age of 2, probably due to their mother's desperation.
Lauren explained, "Our mom couldn't handle us. We climbed too much, so she put us somewhere that there were safety nets. We weren't allowed to compete until age 7 and we both really excelled at it. I was really good at floor and bars and Meaghan was good at floor and beam."
Lauren was so good, in fact, that she won all-around three times at the state meet and twice qualified for the nationals.
As freshmen at Eldorado, however, they had to choose a new sport. Basketball is the major winter sport in New Mexico and they considered that, but Meaghan exercised her veto.
She pointed out, "I never really had played basketball, but had been in dance at the time. I'm not really good with eye-hand (coordination) stuff. I loved the water and diving was real easy for me. We are natural athletes. We have speed and agility. We already had the fundamentals of the air and how to flip, so it came naturally."
Enter swim coach Quint Seckler.
He recalled, "They hemmed and hawed about playing basketball. The pole vault was almost an afterthought. A lot of times we get kids who start from scratch and we always look for gymnasts. They've got that body control in the air. It's just a matter of teaching them how to leave the diving board, because they are flawless in the air. You've got to be fearless. After the first two meets those two were pretty good."
Seckler added, "Both are very competitive. Had they chosen to play basketball they probably would have done just fine. They want to be the best. They also are in student senate, senior class officers and in the student council. Both are in the top 20 in their class (with above A averages). They are really great kids, work so hard and are totally supportive of each other."
Then he gave them probably the supreme compliment: "They're not flashy, but if you want to clone some kids, they would be the type of kids you would want."
Lauren placed fourth in 1-meter diving at the state meet as a freshman, but both really came into their own as sophomores. Lauren won Class 5A diving with 450 points and Meaghan was second with 396. Third place was 355.
However, as juniors they both finished a notch lower with Lauren placing second and Meaghan third. The winner, who was third the year before, was
St. Pius X (Albuquerque) sophomore
Natasha Dark.
Lauren accepted her runner-up finish philosophically.
She acknowledged, "It was disappointing, but I knew going in that I was at a disadvantage because I didn't have it (diving work) year-round like she did."
Meanwhile, Lauren was spending half of each year working on the pole vault and dominating at the state level.
Track coach Kathy Brion "planted the seed" that the twins, with their natural speed and strength, could become good pole vaulters.
"They just took to it like fish to water," she said. "Both bring such good positive work ethic and are natural leaders."
Looking back at her freshman year, Lauren pointed out, "It was a lot of steps and it takes a long time to learn the basics. I (set a personal record) in my third-to-last meet (10 feet, 6 inches) and after that I just got it."
She "got it" so well, in fact, that she upset a favored senior and won the Class 5A state pole vault at 10-9 as a freshman.
Her reaction: "I was completely shocked, because I didn't think I had a chance."
She just got better every year, winning the state title at 11-9 as a sophomore and 12-3 as a junior. Both were state meet records. She actually cleared 13-3 as a junior in a regular-season meet, but only state meet efforts count as official state records.
Lauren is the first girl to win the state pole vault three years in a row and hopes to break her own record with No. 4 in the spring.
Meaghan Martinez diving.
Photo courtesy of Lauren Martinez
Brion pointed out, "Her goal is 14 feet this year. Honestly I think it's very doable for her because she is faster and stronger."
Meaghan, who found pole vaulting tougher to master than diving, was able to finish fourth in the state as a sophomore and junior.
More records and honors may be ahead for the talented twins as they complete their careers in 2015 at Eldorado.
Secker pointed out, "I had one other girl diver who probably compared to them. Lauren probably is the best. I just want them to enjoy it. My guess is that it will be the (same) three of them again. What order (of finish at the state meet), I don't know."
Despite the danger of their events, both girls are unfazed.
Meaghan puts it this way: "We're not scared. We just grew up not having to worry about anything. No one ever told us to be careful and we never get hurt. We get mental blocks on certain things, but we just push through it."
The only thing that scares Meghan is spiders.
This will probably be the final diving season for Lauren, who will attend the University of California next fall on a track scholarship. Meaghan hopes to continue diving at a Division 2 or Division 3 college.
As they continue their careers, in and out of the classroom, the twins must face one aggravating problem - hiccups.
Lauren started getting them seven years ago, but Meaghan just picked up a milder version a few years ago.
"It sounds like a little dog barking," Lauren described. "We have no idea (how and why they started). We've been to many doctors and tried prescriptions. It happens randomly. The teachers and students aren't fazed by it any more. They just know it's me. It was embarrassing and certain teachers would get mad (in the beginning)."
Because the hiccups are so random, what happens during athletic competition?
Lauren related, "It's happened a lot of times when I've been on the board. I can usually stop before I start the event, Over the years it's gotten a little better."
After trying every remedy under the sun, Lauren and Meaghan have settled on the only thing that seems to work - peanut butter. No kidding, they carry it everywhere they go.
