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CONTENTS l i r Ap FROM THE EDITOR
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NCAA INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
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DESTINY
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ON A MISSION
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FROM THE EDITOR No fools for this April when it comes to pole vaulting at all levels within the sport! High school girls and boys are both on fire, and for the standard, these kids are starting to make, the 13-foot girl and the 17-foot boy seems to be the new standard.
On the cover, we have an article by Tim Reilly, and he has a young lady that has broken the high school girls record. Here is a rundown of the current situation. “Unfortunately, the mark will not be ratifiable as an American Junior Indoor Record, because there was only one official and they require three. “
Current Outdoor Records: • “NFHS Record: 14’4” Rachel Baxter 2017 • T&FN HS Records: 14’7.50” (4.46) Lexi Weeks 2015, but Chloe’s 4.50i will replace this, they combine indoor and outdoor for their list • USATF Junior Outdoor Record: 4.45 Desiree Freier 2014 World Junior Record: 4.71i Wilma Murto (IAAF also combines indoor and outdoor for their list).
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NFHS Record is the best mark made in an in-season HSonly competition. It has to be one of the school’s meets and has to have at least three teams. Beyond that, I don’t think they do much vetting. Looking at her schedule, I think all of her school’s meets should be fine. T&FN Records are the marks that most people consider the “real” HS records. They count any legitimate mark by a high schooler through August 31st of their senior year, as long as they don’t turn pro.”
We will see what happens, she is not alone, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we don’t have other ladies trying to break this record asap. John Clark that Master’s Vaulter out of Texas and he never ceases to amaze with his adventures. “ I started this pole vaulting journey back in October 2017, with my good friend, Bubba Sparks, teaching and training me. I had never vaulted before in my life – except for a couple of Sunday afternoon visits to Brian Elmore’s practice place
the previous summer – and at the ripe ol’ age of 60 years, seriously overweight and out of shape, it’s been fairly slow going, at least in my mind.” Like we said last month, sometimes you have to learn by doing, even when it comes down to an overexcited vaulter with a teenaged mind and a Master’s body. Good for you John, we love what you do!
Kreager Taber discusses the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships. “The Birmingham Metro CrossPlex of Birmingham, Alabama hosted some of the nation’s best athletes on March 8th and 9th for the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships.” This meet did not disappoint at all, wish we would have joined all the rest. Next month we will have our first Hall of Fame issue of Vaulter Magazine. Stay Tuned. Doug Bouma Editor, Vaulter Magazine Vaulter Club Inc. editor@thevaultermag.com
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NCAA INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS By Kreager Taber The Birmingham Metro CrossPlex of Birmingham, Alabama hosted some of the nation’s best athletes on March 8th and 9th for the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships. The women of the University of Arkansas and the men of the University of Florida emerged victorious and claimed the team titles after finishing with 62 and 55 points, respectively. While the final results of the pole vault competition proved to be predictable based on the athlete’s tra-
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jectories and seed heights, the Indoor Track and Field Championships nonetheless highlighted the strength of both the men’s and women’s fields and set the stage for a phenomenal outdoor season. While their teammates rested after the conclusions of their indoor seasons and began to prepare for (and in some cases, even compete) outdoors, the few athletes that qualified to compete on the national stage continued their grind to arrive in Birmingham in peak condition.
While some competitors inevitably left disappointed in their performances, most of the top vaulters played crucial roles in bolstering their team’s scores. In particular, the University of Arkansas women’s team score was heavily reinforced by the success of their vaulters.
Unsurprisingly, Alexis Jacobus and Victoria Hoggard of the University of Arkansas both placed in the top three finishers, with Jacobus defending her Indoor title
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Matt Ludwig NCAA
from last year with a jump of 4.61 meters, or 15’1.5”, and Hoggard taking third with 4.46 meters, or 14’7.5”. During their fourth NCAA Indoor Championship, the twins cemented their positions as two of the most decorated teammates in collegiate history for indoor track and field, and Jacobus earned her fourth NCAA title. Also during the women’s competi-
tion, Bonnie Draxler of San Diego State University took second place in her third NCAA championship with a huge jump of 4.56 meters, or 14’11.5”. After recently earning the title of USTFCCCA West Region Field Athlete of the Year and winning her fourth straight Mountain West pole vault title, she continued her momentum from her extremely success-
ful senior season to head home from Birmingham with a new personal best. Her mark of 4.56 meters is the eighth-best mark by any American vaulter, collegiate or professional, this season. In Draxler’s previous appearances at the NCAA Track and Field Championships, she took 16th during last year’s Indoor Championships and 21st in 2017 at the NCAA
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Outdoor Championships. She also singlehandedly pulled San Diego State University into a 27th place-tie with her eight points. Desiree Freier of Arkansas took fourth in the competition, matching Victoria Hoggard with a jump of 4.46 meters, or 14’7.5”. Jacobus, Hoggard, and Freier all made integral contributions towards the University of Arkansas women’s team championship title, the third in the program’s history. The University of Arkansas had been ranked as the top women’s team in the country Nastassja Campbell NCAA top 10
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from preseason to the NCAA Championship and won the competition with 62 points, 21 of which coming from the pole vault competition.
On the men’s side of the competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships, many of the athletes that have stood out all season continued to shine. Predictably, Mondo Duplantis took the NCAA Division I title with a jump of 5.83 meters, or 19’1.5”. The 2018-2019 indoor season was his first competing for the LSU Ti-
gers, and his championship title culminates an undefeated collegiate indoor season. Interestingly, according to research from Flotrack’s Gordon Mack conducted in July of 2018, Duplantis had rejected at least $83,000 in prize money at that point in time in order to preserve his NCAA eligibility and compete as a Tiger. His time at Louisiana State University has been well worth it thus far, as Duplantis also broke the collegiate record earlier this year and has been a standout on national and interna-
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Branson Ellis NCAA
tional stages throughout his freshman indoor season. His jump of 5.92 meters, or 19’5”, from earlier this season was not only a new NCAA Indoor record: it was also a SEC championship meet record, Swedish record, an indoor personal best, and the world leading height at that time. Chris Nilsen of the University of South Dakota took second with a vault of 5.73 meters, or 18’9.5”. While this is the second consecutive indoor season in which he has been the national runner up, he
has also won the NCAA National Championship twice so far in his career as a Ute. Nilsen is a junior, meaning he will continue to push the men’s pole vault field this outdoor season and through the next year to improve national qualifying marks. Jacob Wooten, a senior of Texas A&M, took third while also clearing 5.73 meters for a personal best, and Matthew Ludwig of Akron took fourth with 5.68 meters, or 18’7.5”. Earlier this season, Ludwig temporarily held the world
lead with a mark of 5.83 meters, or 19’1.5”, which he set at an Akron-Kent State Dual meet. Louisiana State University took third at the meet with 31 total points, and approximately a third of those came from Duplantis’ winning efforts. This year’s men’s NCAA Indoor Championships were the first in which three athletes cleared 5.73 meters, or 18’9.5”, during the competition. The men’s field has become astronomically more competitive in recent years, keeping coaches and athletes
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excited to see how the field continues to progress. While schools in many warmer states, such as California, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Georgia have already begun their official outdoor seasons, numerous schools in colder climates elect to begin their seasons later in March. 2019’s indoor track and field season proved to be one of the most competitive
in NCAA history, and the success is sure to also carry onto the outdoor season. Many of the nation’s best athletes will soon set their sights on the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, which will be held at the Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. Heralded as one of the finest tracks in the nation, the stadium can fit more than 20,000 spectators and serves as the annual host
of the Texas Relays, making it the perfect venue for a riveting national championship.
Chris Neilson NCAA
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Lexi Jacobus
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Nastassja Campbell
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DESTINY By Tim Reilly
Northwest Pole Vault Club director, 5th year Northwest Pole Vault Camp director, 30th year Washington State coach certification director, 15 years Coaches Blueprint for Success: Pole Vault, author
After a long, bruising journey to level 9 gymnastics, Mike Cunliffe brought Chloe in for her first private lesson the summer before her sophomore year at West Seattle High school. She had not run track since she was 10. She took to it like a seal to water and made such good attempts at a 10’ bungee in her first two hours, both she and her dad were giddy. Her dad asked, “If I can get her speed into the high or mid elevens, how high can this kid vault?” Having coached thousands of beginning high school vaulters over my 30 years, I said I could see no ceiling on this one, that she would certainly
jump between 15’ and 16’. I sent a video to my buddy Pat Licari at the University of Washington and said, “Look what I found today.” He said, “Is that a Cunliffe? Tell them I’ll sign her today!” The family has high athletic credentials to say the least. Ahead of her is Hannah, a world-class sprinter with Adidas. Behind her is her 13 y/o sister Abby who will likely long jump 18’ before she starts high school. In this family of 8 kids, choosing your passion is up to you, but laziness is off the table. After missing much of her first fall of training due to residual back pain from gym-
nastics, Chloe took off fast and went to an incredible 4 meters (13’1) in her first season, winning the regional Junior Olympic meet in Spokane. With priority emphasis on plant technique and with a tenacious competitive spirit, her most astonishing early difference was in her pole size. By the summer of her first season she was nearly capping a 13’7 165 at 118 lbs. She had not begun to close- off through release. In her junior year she trained more comprehensively. Under the expert eye of her dad, one of America’s leading speed scientists,
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she did speed work 3 days a week, Olympic lifting and plyometrics two days a week, and she vaulted two days a week plus meets. By May she started a brilliant summer, winning the Washington State 3A championship with an All-time state best of 13’8, then winning the Junior Olympics regional meet at 14’0 and the national title and meet record in Greensborough. Incredibly, she still had just begun to come off the top of her pole. And her dad said, “Oh she’s gonna get way faster too. Senior year she’s gonna blow up the weight room.” Fast forward to her first big venue at Reno this year where she turned a lot of heads with her remarkable velocity, an easy clearance of 14’ and a near miss at the junior national record 14’5. She made such an impression that she was invited to the Diamond League meet in Boston which set their heights for her to land on the record jump again, but an inflamed wrist she first felt at Reno was getting worse. 6 weeks later we hoped she could jump at New balance but just didn’t feel healed enough to risk it. It was a hard choice that proved wise now as it gave her about 10 days of easy vaulting again to
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get ready for outdoors. For a last chance at the junior indoor record, she competed on St Patrick’s day at a meet hosted by Pat Licari’s Pole Vault club in Tacoma. After a
monstrous clearance of 13’7, she asked for them to put the bar at record height, 4.39 meters (14’5). After a clean first clearance, she raised it to 4.50 and cleared it again Chloe Cunliffe going 14’
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cleanly (14’9). Finally coming off the top of her pole more vertically, she remains on a 7 -step run on a 14’1 165 with no room to go longer in our training center until we can get her outside. In other words, she is far from finished. She plans to include the Texas Relays and Arcadia in her outdoor schedule and to hit the biggest national meets for which she qualifies this summer.
One could say the stars are all aligned for this special athlete. Family genes, a speed coach father, a NWPV Club training center culture with sky- high expectations and multiple All-Americans both ahead of her and hot on her trail. And Chloe has the elusive X-factor all pole vault coaches dream of and rarely get; she fears no opponent and no meet venue. “I LOVE the rush of adrenaline this sport includes,” she says. And she is fiercely competitive. The bigger the challenge, the more certainly she will perform. Her two top college choices were Arkansas and WSU, both for the coaches and for the chance to train with the best couple of women in the world today. By the time she joins Brad Walker and Katie Nageotte at WSU this summer, she might already be one of them.
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Chloe Cunliffe 2018 Junior Olympics
Tim Reilly
Northwest Pole Vault Club director, 5th year Northwest Pole Vault Camp director, 30th year Washington State coach certification director, 15 years Coaches Blueprint for Success: Pole Vault, author
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ON A MISSION By John Clark
Since recording a new PR of 7-9 at this year’s Summit in Reno, and then barely missing my third attempt at 8-1, I kinda feel like I’ve been regressing a little bit, instead of progressing.
I started this pole vaulting journey back in October 2017, with my good friend, Bubba Sparks, teaching and training me. I had never vaulted before in my life – except for a couple of Sunday afternoon visits to Brian Elmore’s practice place the previous summer – and at the ripe ol’ age of 60 years, seriously overweight and out of shape, it’s been fairly slow going, at least in my mind. Various bumps and bruises, strains and sprains, have slowed me down from time to time, including a nasty groin pull/tear that pretty much sidelined me for about 10 weeks just prior to Reno.
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Overall, I’ve made steady progress, I suppose, but there’s a pretty big difference right now between the jumping I visualize, and the reality of what happens when I get on the runway. My first-ever pole vault meet was last spring’s Texas Senior Games in San Antonio.
I can’t remember exactly where the bar was set to begin with, but I think it was less than five feet. Needless to say, not many people were coming in at that height, but with six months of jumping practice under my belt, one of my goals was simply to clear a bar – to get the experience of an actual competition – so John take-off
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however low they wanted to go was fine by me.
I was pushing the pole then, and I think my first attempt was probably from three lefts. As I approached the take-off, my mind went blank, I forgot all about what I was doing, everything kind of went dark, and I managed somehow to miss the box. After peeling myself off the front left edge of the mat
– thankfully, I didn’t hear any laughing – I re-grouped and redeemed myself on my second attempt. After that, I did better and made it all the way to 5-7, before a nagging calf strain started acting up and I pretty much threw in the towel at 6-something. My leg was hurting pretty good, but I decided to go ahead and make my three attempts. Since I didn’t figure to even come close to qualifying for
the National Senior Games – there were a half-dozen really good vaulters in my age group there in San Antonio, including my old high school friend, Don Curry – I decided to give it another go, and signed up for the Oklahoma Senior Games. I wasn’t going to give up that easily.
The Oklahoma meet was six months after the Texas
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games, and I had made a lot of progress by that time – and I was pretty much painfree. I asked Bubba, who had already qualified for Nationals, if he’d come along and coach me. He said, sure, and then later decided that if he was going to drive all the way to Oklahoma, he might as well go ahead and jump, too. Not only did I meet some cool people at the Oklahoma meet, including Don Isett and J Barton Fogleman, but I was jumping pretty well, and even hung in there long enough to mix it up a little with the big boys.
The bar started out really low again, and I think I was the only one to jump at the opening height. Eventually, it got up to 7-feet and when I cleared that, I was pretty pumped. I missed once or twice at 7-6, then made that. Next up was 8-1, and I was thinking maybe I’d actually get there. Unfortunately, I guess I got a little over-excited and started trying too hard, trying to clear the bar instead of just executing the jump, and I couldn’t get over.
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But I was thrilled with 7-6, which earned me a gold medal and a trip to this summer’s Nationals in Albuquerque. It wasn’t long after Oklahoma that I blew out my left-side groin, which made my participation in Jack Chapman’s Expo Explosion in December questionable. But I got through that event, and actually managed 7-8, another PR, and went home without further damage. Now, three months after my first trip to Reno, I’m feeling more fit than ever, no more pain anywhere, but I still haven’t cleared 8 feet, which I thought for sure I’d be doing by now. Came close a few times, but close only counts in, well, you know …
Some things have definitely improved, but as my knowledge increases and I understand more about what I need to do, it’s a little frustrating when there’s a big difference between what I visualize and see other vaulters doing, and what I actually execute at practice. I’m told that my take-off has gotten quite a bit better, and I agree – to an extent. My right-arm extension is
consistently a lot better, but I still let both my arms collapse too much and bring the pole back too close to my body, so I’m not getting a good stretch through my chest. I’m keeping my trail leg down a lot better, but there’s still the tendency to pick it up instead of swinging it through – kicking at the ol’ soccer ball, as I’ve heard it described. I’m really hoping for 9 feet at Nationals, which is a pretty hefty goal, I suppose, but I know I can do it. Practice, practice, practice.
Next month, I’m at the Texas Senior Games again, where I’ll meet up with my New Braunfels jumping buddies, and hopefully see some other awesome folks I haven’t seen in a while. And, hopefully, get over that 8-feet plateau. I’m thinking 8-6.
John Clark is a freelance writer and author in central Texas who started learning to pole vault at the age of 60. For more information on him and his work, go to: https://www. johnhenryiii.com.
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John runway photo
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