While many athletes aspire to be the next Stephen Curry or Patrick Mahomes, Wichita State track and field’s Abby Rexford has a different idol in mind: Joanna Gaines, the HGTV star of the show “Fixer Upper.”
Gaines “kind of does everything,” according to Rexford. Gaines renovates houses, owns a flower shop, is a “good” mother and is an entrepreneur — similar to Rexford’s entrepreneurship major. Rexford aspires to be like her and work at Magnolia Farms, one of the businesses Gaines and her husband own down in Waco, Texas.
“I’ve actually been to Magnolia Farms twice,” Rexford said. “And it’s like Disneyland for me. I’ve never actually been to Disneyland, but that’s how I experienced Magnolia Farms.”
Rexford is a freshman pole vaulter for the Shockers. At West Jessamine High School in Wilmore, Kentucky, she was a two-time 3A State runner-up. Up until the fifth grade, though, she’d never tried pole vaulting. “I was a dancer all through my life and dance kind of had lost its shine and appeal in my life, and I wanted to definitely do something and do something athletic,” Rexford said. “So track was the first thing that really came to my mind because I wasn’t really good at any other sport.”
During her fifth-grade year, her track coach asked her to try out pole vaulting. And despite her parents’ initial reluctance to let their daughter try the event, Rexford said, “The rest is history.”
‘Grandma hobbies’
Throughout her teenage years, Rexford picked up a creative streak, participating in “grandma hobbies” such as sewing, crocheting, cooking, baking and painting. She originally started sewing because of her grandmother, who wanted to pass down her love of the hobby.
“(My grandma) gave my mom a sewing machine that was hers and just passed it down. I was probably a little too young to be using a sewing machine but just found a love for creating and sewing.”
While developing her love of creating, she simultaneously found a way to not let her athletics overtake her life.
“I like to stay busy and productive,” Rexford said. “I think using a creative outlet has been necessary to excel in sports because when you think about your sport all the time, it’s not good.”
Rexford said she has learned how important time management is to keep her creative outlet alive on top of her schoolwork and pole vaulting.
“Time is important,” Rexford said. “I view it more as a ‘There’s a time for everything in life, and there’s a time when you’re at your sport.’ Just be fully present and try (your) hardest, try your best. And when you aren’t at your sport, you can think about it, but you don’t have to.”
Rexford has produced many works of art, such as flower bouquets and watercolors of the alphabet through flowers, but one of her favorites comes from her senior year of high school.
“I really love the idea of using things that people haven’t used before as textiles,” she said. “So for my senior prom dress, that was one of my favorite creations. I made it completely out of pearls and just no fabric. Because you don’t see many things made out of pearls … Just the idea, even taking second-hand thrifted items and remaking it into something new that is wearable shows that things are meant to be reused.”
When Rexford isn’t making pearl dresses or flinging herself over a bar, she practices her faith, encouraging others to do the same. She suggests joining the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Wichita.
Arantxa Cortez, a second-year pole vaulter, was one of the first faces Rexford saw while visiting WSU for the first time. Rexford said that Cortez helped persuade her to come to Wichita, as she knew there would be “good people and good pole vaulters.”
Cortez said one of the first things they did together was go to church. Cortez said that experience started to change her life.
“When I came here, I was really shy and didn’t talk to anyone … I grew up in a Catholic family in Peru and when I came here … I didn’t know what to do or how to get to my faith — work through my faith,” Cortez said. “So when Abby came here after one year that I was here in the U.S., she helped me through it, make it easy for me. I think she changed my life.”
Rexford, throughout her life as an athlete and an artist, has learned to simply enjoy the process of all of her activities.
“The time it takes to do it, and the dedication, and I think that translates over to sports so well,” Rexford said. “Because I have to keep in mind, everything takes time, and instant gratification doesn’t come from everything, and it’s really taught me work ethic and just enjoying the process.”
