Charles City senior Sierra Walker to swim and jump for Minnesota Morris

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Sierra Walker is going to be a two-sport athlete in college.

Might as well. She’s a two-school athlete in high school.

A senior at Charles City High School, Walker is a Comet when she travels through the air. When she traveled through water, she was a Mohawk … or at least she was this year.

For her freshman through junior years, Walker swam for the Comets before Charles City eliminated it’s swim program.

So for her senior year, Walker drove 30 miles to Mason City to swim there and almost helped the Mohawks’ 400 freestyle relay team reach state with a fifth-place time at regionals.

On Thursday, Walker signed on to swim for the University of Minnesota Morris. But that’s not all.

“They told me that I could high jump for them, also,” Walker said, “so I said, ‘Why not?’ “

Walker also is going to high jump for the Comets girls track and field team for her final prep season.

“She’s been a solid high jumper for us going on four years,” Charles City girls track coach Darren Bohlen said. “Last year we were setting her up to be part of our shuttle relay.”

Charles City’s shuttle relay would go on to continue its string of state appearances, but Walker wasn’t part of it as she had to negotiate another hurdle which hampered her season.

“I had surgery to take my appendix out,” Walker said. “That happened after three meets into the season. I was able to come back at the end, but I only got five total meets in.”

With a personal-best of 4 feet, 8 inches in the high jump, Walker has a goal to clear 5 feet this spring and qualify for state.

Though a chance to swim in college helped attract Walker to Minnesota Morris, she said that she was more focused on academics.

She plans to study chemistry in college.

“Science and math have always been my favorite subjects in school,” she said.