Griffin Matthew keeps a copy of Barack Obama’s biography on her desk, and she calls the Democratic senator from Illinois one of her personal heroes. “If he were a band, I would be a groupie,” Matthew said.
Matthew, a senior at Niwot High School who will attend Stanford University in the fall, intends to pursue law school after college, like Obama, then move into the political arena. It is possible, maybe 20 years down the road, that a motivated high school senior somewhere will have a well-worn copy of Sen. Matthew’s biography sitting on her desk.
And Matthew might be wearing an Olympic medal around her neck on the cover photo.
Born Sarah Griffin Matthew in Charlottesville, Va., Matthew dropped “Sarah” early and took her maternal great-great-grandmother’s name. Her family moved to Colorado via Louisville, Ky., when she was 14 years old. She took up track in seventh grade while living in Kentucky, then won her first state title two years later as part of Niwot’s Class 4A state-meet record 400- meter relay team. Matthew won her first individual title the next year as a sophomore with a leap of 19 feet, 1/4 inch, setting a 4A state-meet record.
And then things really got good. As a junior, Matthew swept first place in four events – the 100 and 200 meters, the long jump and the 400 relay. That season, Matthew won a national indoor long jump title with a leap of 20-8 1/2, the second-best indoor mark in the nation by a female high school athlete in 2005, a distance that stands as No. 5 on the all-time list of U.S. prep athletes, according to Track & Field News.
She then jumped 21-2 outdoors at the Simplot Games in Idaho, the best jump in the nation by a prep athlete that year and seventh-best all-time.
That’s the thing with Griffin Matthew. One amazing feat is followed by another, yet everyone says she is just getting started.
“She knows where she is going, and she knows how she is going to get there,” said Tony Wells, a certified master coach who trains Matthew as part of the Colorado Flyers when she is not practicing at Niwot.
No doubt, Griffin is a gifted young woman. She carries a weighted 4.3 grade-point average in the International Baccalaureate program, a demanding curriculum that provides a globally recognized diploma. She is Niwot’s student body president, an accomplished pianist, active in her church and the recipient of a full athletic scholarship to Stanford.
Her mother, Dayna, is the associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Colorado’s school of law, and her father, Thomas, is a heart surgeon.
At the mention of Matthew’s name, Niwot principal Dennis Daly offered this: “She is a phenomenal, extraordinary, articulate, lovely young lady who is full of enthusiasm. She starts more organizations, backs more endeavors. … She is a mover and a shaker.”
Matthew credited her mother with directing her toward politics. Dayna Matthew guided her daughter in that direction in part because of Griffin’s undeniable passion, which can take on a humorous life of its own.
“When she gets excited about a political point or a social injustice, she talks so emphatically and so fast that she will make up a word. She will be going really well, and then she will say something like, ‘That is so splendiferous,”‘ Dayna Matthew said.
Another splendiferous part of Matthew’s personality is that she just wants to enjoy living this part of her life while she can. There is no talk of the Olympics – “I would definitely pursue the opportunity if it arose, but right now I can’t see past college,” she said – and there is absolutely no talk of academic slacking.
“There is no time for spring fever. I have a study schedule, and I am sticking to it,” she said last week after being interrupted by a phone call during study time.
Matthew is as focused as that comment might make her appear, but she also is friendly, personable and involved. As student body president, she has immersed herself in the preparation of the year-end “senior night,” a look back at the seniors’ final year of high school.
“Senior night is that sentimental night when you bring your Kleenex,” Matthew said.
As for her current athletic goals, Matthew would like to break the Colorado long jump state-meet record of 21-0 3/4, set last year by Montbello graduate Chealsea Taylor. Taylor trumped the two-decade-old mark by more than a foot and a half, and Matthew would like to go just a little farther than that.
Wells said Matthew, along with George Washington hurd- ler Darius Reed and Eaglecrest sprinter Ashley Cruder, will be vying for a spot on the junior national team for a chance to compete in China this summer. That schedule won’t leave Matthew at her peak level for the state meet in May, but “she should be good enough to win it anyway,” Wells said.
Cruder, the current high school national champion in the 60 meters, said she and Matthew enjoy a laugh once in a while, but their relationship is mostly business.
“We talk mostly track,” Cruder said. “We are like rivals. She doesn’t like to lose to me, and I don’t like to lose to her.”
