LANCASTER, Ohio (WCMH) — Christian Thompson’s future was all set up during her junior year at Fairfield Union High School.

The multi-sport athlete committed to play volleyball at Ohio University and after her high school season, decided to take a break and not play basketball in the winter.

Then her dad gave her a choice.

“He said either get a job or run track,” she said with a laugh. “So, I decided to run track.”

Although run wasn’t exactly what Thompson or even her father had in mind.

“I’m not really the running type, I guess,” Thompson said. “My dad just really wanted me to high jump, so I decided to give it a try.”

Much to the delight of the Falcons’ track and field head coach Rob Myers.

“We got her in touch with our high jump coach in the winter and just to test things out and see if she liked it,” he said with a smile. “She immediately loved it. And we were kind of like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’”

So Fairfield Union high jump coach Mike Graham got Christian doing some basic drills, learning the footwork and doing what is called a “scissor.”

“Which is basically stepping over the bar,” Graham said. “And she went to her first indoor meet. It was a week too late, but she could have qualified for indoor state meet that year just by scissoring at five-foot and that was her first experience.”

If it sounds nuts to you, Graham said it is. “Yes, very much so.”

In the next few months, Thompson went on to break the Fairfield Union school record — twice. She won the Mid-State League-Buckeye Division, district and regional individual titles.

Then, only six months after taking her first jump, Thompson finished second in the state by only one inch.

“She’s very driven,” Myers said. “If she has a bad jump, she doesn’t seem to want to give up. She seems to want to improve.”

Myers knows what it takes to be a Division I track athlete. He was a two-time All American at Ohio State in the 1500 meters and after graduating, won three 1500-meter national championships and competed on three world championship teams for the United States.

His intuition told him Thompson was a special talent, so he called his alma mater in Columbus to get some feedback.

“I said, ‘I want you to see this to see what you thought. She’s brand new to this. Completely new to her. So just what do you think?’” Myers said. “And they immediately were like, ‘Hey, can we, can we talk?’”

And after many talks, Thompson decommitted from Ohio for volleyball and signed with the Ohio State track and field team.

“It’s always been a dream since I was a kid to go to Ohio State,” Thompson said with giddy excitement. “And so, I was just like, I was flabbergasted.”

“Again, she’s only been doing this for a little over a year,” Graham said, shaking his head in disbelief. “It’s going to be fun to see how far Ohio State can take her further.”

But first, Thompson has one more goal, one more inch to achieve.

“I want to win the state meet this year,” she said with fire in her eyes. “I don’t want to be second place. I want to win.”