The scenario is so ludicrous, it need only be put forth in a straight sentence: The nation’s best prep long jumper, a two-time reigning state champion, will spend his junior season on his school’s junior varsity team.The player caught in such bizarre circumstances is Devin Field, a DeSoto (Texas) High athlete who was recently declared ineligible because of residency regulations by Texas’ University Interscholastic League, which governs scholastic extracurricular activities in the Lone Star State. As covered by the Dallas Morning News and ESPN, among other sources, Field was declared ineligible for the spring season just days after winning the New Balance Nationals Indoor long jump title in New York, doing so with a lower back injury.The issue behind Field’s eligibility quandary is, at face value, a simple one. UIL determined that he couldn’t compete for DeSoto because he is not currently living with a parent. Instead, Field is staying with Trent Gamble, an assistant coach for the Texas Faces track club who also happens to be a family friend. The move to stay with Gamble was made for academic reasons, with Field desperate to graduate next winter to focus more time on his budding track career. His previous school, Port Arthur (Texas) Memorial High, wouldn’t have allowed him to complete the courses he needed to finish by December 2012, which will allow him to enroll early at Kansas Statefor the Wildcats’ spring track season. Yet there was a good reason why Field couldn’t live with a parent; his mother and sister had to stay in Port Arthur to help take care of Field’s grandmother, whose cancer had re-emerged in August, just before Field was to start his junior year at DeSoto after his first two years at Lancaster (Texas) High. Continue reading →

Sunbury, PA–Like running and jumping, the pole vault did not begin as a sporting event. It was a means for 19th-century Europeans to cross water-filled canals in areas where there were no bridges.For Selinsgrove’s Christian Burke, Lewisburg’s Cam Cassels and Milton’s Vicki Soltys, it just might be a means for athletic recognition and even a ticket to college.Burke and Cassels are the Valley’s top boys’ vaulters and Soltys is the class on the girls’ side.The Seal and the Dragon, along with Jersey Shore’s Mac Thompson, have become friendly rivals and have pushed one another to new heights. Soltys, competing in the shadow of Central Columbia star Virginia LaMacchia, has emerged as the next outstanding female vaulter.All will be among the contenders in the vault in today’s Heartland Athletic Conference championship meet at Shikellamy High School. The girls’ vault is set to start at 10:50 a.m. with the boys to follow at about 12:40 p.m.Burke, who broke the school record with a 14-foot, 5-inch vault to beat Cassels in a dual meet on May 1, hit 14 for the first time in his four-year career in a meet earlier in the season against Jersey Shore and Thompson.It is probably no coincidence that Burke’s top two performances of the season came when competing against his closest rivals.”I really do enjoy going against Cam and Mac. We have trained together so we all know each other. It’s really just fun competing and I look forward to those meets more than any other,” Burke said.Seeking another chanceThe Seals’ senior, son of Brian Burke and Toni Ferster, is looking to earn a return trip to the Class AAA state championship meet in Shippensburg at the end of the month and redeem himself, after a disappointing 23rd-place finish (12-6) last season. Continue reading →

Conner Foxworth of St. Patrick, a University of Alabama signee, has set a new overall state record in the pole vault on Friday afternoon.
Foxworth went 16 feet, 6.25 inches in the Class 3A State Track and Field Meet at Pearl High School. He broke the former record of Oxford’s Sam Kendricks, who held the old record of 16-3.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/05/10/3942607/foxworth-sets-new-state-record.html#storylink=cpy

Building new athletic facilities are expensive, and the onus they put on school districts is sky high given the dire financial straits that many states find themselves in. Amidst this sea of financial concerns and general uncertainty, one Oregon school came up with a novel way to get a desperately needed, professional quality running track: It traded a waffle iron for it. As reported by the Portland Oregonian, Condon (Ore.) High was in desperate need for a new track and runways for the long jump, pole vault and javelin events. Two Continue reading →

Hollister, MO–Hollister sophomore Cody Canote has passed judgement in the eyes of Tony Williams as a worthy successor to the latter’s 44-year-old school record in the pole vault.Canote has Williams’ full support to break the mark of 13-6 that they currently share, so much so that Williams’ son, Brandon, has been a frequent visitor to the Tigers’ practices to offer instruction.“He’s here a couple of times a week or as much as he can get away from work,” Canote said. “He’s helped me improve tremendously. It’s like night and day, considering how much we’ve done.“(Taney County Associate Circuit Court Judge Tony Williams) is busy with his judge-stuff, but has told me a few times he would like to come watch me vault at a meet. He’s made it clear he would love to see me win at Sectionals or State and is excited about me trying to break the record.”Canote and his Hollister teammates will be in Class 2 Sectional 3 action today at Fair Grove. The top four finishers in each event earn a trip to the Class 2 State Track Meet.Canote has increased his personal-record by a foot over the course of this season, his full go-around as a pole-vaulter. He only began vaulting midway through last season.“One Friday after school before practice I saw some guys vaulting and said, ‘Hey, that looks like fun,’” Canote said. “So, I picked up a pole and tried it.”Canote doesn’t have a gymnastics background, like most of the Tri-Lakes Area’s best vaulters past and present. But as a youth he was accustomed to heights and twisting his body in all directions.“The trampoline was my best Continue reading →

Christine Stitcher became one of the few athletes in Illinois history to qualify for three state meets in one school year when her 10-3 pole vault at the Niles West Sectional sent her to the State Finals Thursday through Saturday at Eastern Illinois University.Earlier this year, Stitcher, a Deerfield High School junior, competed in the State Swim Meet as a diver and in the winter season went to the State Finals in gymnastics participating in the all around event, uneven parallel bars and floor exercise.“I’m very, very excited,” Stitcher said of her second place finish after the meet. “I felt I could qualify for three State Meets, but in a sectional meets anything can happen. It feels so amazing.”  Stitcher hopes to achieve a personal best vault next week at the State Meet but has set loftier goals for her senior year where she wants to repeat her achievement. “I want to gain a lot of experience and come back next year and make it to the finals (in all three),” she said.In an era of specialization where young athletes compete with clubs where they are not participating in their one event during the high school season, Stitcher is unique taking the time to excel in three sports.“It makes me really happy to compete in all three,” Stitcher said. “People question me about it. I can do well in all three.” more