KARNS CITY — Annie Hegedus has re-invented herself in the triple jump.

Again.

Last season, Hegedus changed her steps on her approach. This season, the Karns City senior overhauled the way she jumped.

Hegedus changed from a donkey-kick technique to a bicycle-kick one on her take-off.

“The idea is to make the jump more powerful and get out more,” Hegedus said.

For much of the season, Hegedus wondered if it was worth the change as she struggled.

But on Tuesday, Hegedus finally broke through with a jump of 35 feet, 3½ inches against Redbank Valley. The leap was good enough for a Karns City school record.

“I’ve been so frustrated,” Hegedus said. “I haven’t gotten better than 33s. We haven’t had good weather for any of our meets. It was difficult. I was very frustrated with it. (Tuesday) really helped boost my confidence.”

Karns City girls track and field coach Roger King said it was just a matter of time before Hegedus got the new technique down.

“She just needed to get over that little knoll,” King said. “She just needed to get out of the 33s and into the 34s and now she’s at 35. I think at (Friday’s District 9 meet) she will do very well.”

Hegedus said she had a feeling she was going to have a good day last Tuesday from her very first leap in the long jump, where she set her personal-best distance of 15-11.

“I think that gave me confidence for the triple jump,” she said.

The timing couldn’t be better for Hegedus, who had one eye on the calendar and one eye on her distances the last few weeks.

Hegedus’ best distance last year with her old technique in the triple jump was 34-9½. That was the previous school mark.

She hadn’t come close to that until Tuesday.

“It was our last meet, so, yeah, it was perfect timing,” Hegedus said. “To reach the qualifying distance for long jump and to beat the record in the triple jump was great.”

Hegedus first made the switch this summer when she attended a jumping camp at Slippery Rock University.

She wasn’t initially sold on the idea, but the promise of extending her jumps was just too enticing to pass up.

“I didn’t even know I was doing it wrong until I went there,” Hegedus said. “The way I’m doing it now is just a better way. The donkey kick is common, but is not the best.”

She said she was told by coaches at the camp that this was the way the event was being taught now and it was the best way, so she committed completely to it.

It was slow going for Hegedus, who had known only one way of jumping for her entire career.

“At first, I literally couldn’t even get it down,” Hegedus said. “It took awhile to even be able to jump right. My coaches kept saying, ‘It will come.’”

And now they have been proven correct and Hegedus is eager to see if she can bicycle kick her way back to the PIAA Track and Field Championships instead of donkey kicking there.

“I can’t wait to get back out there again,” she said. “I just feel like I can do even better.”