Vaulting in the Big Leagues

Hey so a quick update about this last week. First, last Sunday we had our Empire 8 championships up in Rochester, NY. There were only 7 girls entered for the pole vault. We got to the meet and the weather was ridiculous. Insane winds, and for part of the day a mix of hail, snow, and rain. Thankfully, they decided to have pole vault and high jump indoors for safety reasons, so it was perfect conditions for us! I went into the meet really nervous, because at the previous meet I had done terrible. I am used to warming up on smaller poles at practice with Branko, but my school has a very limited amount of poles so when we get to meets, I have to warmup on our smallest pole, which is now a 13’ 140. But for the last week I was finally able to trust the pole. I also have finally started going from 7 steps, and I feel much faster by the time I get to the box.

So we get to the meet, and find out that pole vault was delayed by 2 hours. That was nice, because I got to watch some other events and just sit and mentally prepare myself for pole vault. I had awesome warm up jumps, and came in at 9’2”. My coach got to see all of my jumps for the first time in a while, and he was impressed with the progress I have made. I got onto my big pole, which is a 13’ 145. I was only holding at 11’9”, and was still getting a lot of bend out of the pole. I ended up jumping 10’2.25”, which was a PR for me, and thus a new school record.

This past Thursday, we went to south jersey for the Stockton Quad meet, and only 2 people from each team could compete in each event. This led to a pole vault field of 4 girls. My warm-ups did not feel that great; I wasn’t moving my arms enough, and wasn’t landing very deep in the pit. I decided to open at 9’. I easily cleared 9’ and was the only person left. I think the fact that I had no competition now (I had already won the event) made my vaulting better. I had nothing to worry about now. I then went for 9’6”, then 10’, then went straight for the ECAC qualifying height of 3.25 meters, or 10’8”. AND I MADE IT ON MY FIRST ATTEMPT!! I did hit the bar on the way down, but it stayed up.

Then I threw the bar up to 11’ but at that point I was getting tired, and I only swung on one of my attempts. But it ended up being a pretty good attempt.

It is so nice to finally see all my work with Branko pay off. I have some awesome practices with him and it sucks when I don’t see that progress when I compete. But it is finally paying off and I am really excited to go even higher. I may even need to get on a bigger pole, like a 13’ 150, to get more spring from the pole.

My next meet is next Saturday at the TCNJ lion invitational. I hope to go even bigger this week. =)

I’ll keep you posted =)