Austin Eckenroth capped a stellar high school track career with yet another accolade this week when the recent Flowery Branch graduate was honored by the Atlanta Track Club.
Eckenroth earned the Bruce Yohe Award from the ATC — which goes to the Field Event Performer of the Year in Georgia.
The Falcons standout recently claimed his second straight Class AAAA pole vault title, clearing 15-foot-5.75 at the state meet on May 10 in Jefferson. Eckenroth notched the top mark in the pole vault in the entire state, regardless of classification, this season when he cleared 16-8 at the Region 8-AAAA championships on April 19 in Loganville.

Eckenroth is headed to compete for the University of South Carolina. more

BY: SAMUEL BILDERBECK

Bilderbeck won the 2012 Class 3A Pole Vault Championship on May 24. He is a sports writer and aspiring journalist for The Alamosan, Alamosa High School’s monthly newspaper.

Alamosa, Colorado–I sat there in Bayfield watching the end of a pole vault competition that I wasn’t a part of. I wasn’t a part of it because I had gotten out one height before this, and had placed third. I had vaulted one foot under my personal best. I had just lost to two vaulters, with less than a week until the state track meet.
This was not the way I wanted to go into the state track meet. I wanted to go into it with as much confidence as possible. There were many times that week where I thought in my head, “wow if I can’t beat them at the league meet, then how am I going to do it at state.”
In the beginning of that week I questioned myself so much. I was nervous and was not Continue reading →

Senior Jake Blankenship of the Gahanna Lincoln High School boys track and field team enters the Division I state meet with visions of setting new state and national records in the pole vault.He insists, though, that he hasn’t lost sight of his main objective, which is to defend his state title in the meet Friday, June 1, and Saturday, June 2, at Ohio State.Blankenship cleared a state-, meet- and stadium-record height of 17 feet to win his first state title last year after finishing fourth (15-8) as a sophomore. On May 17, he broke his state record by clearing 17-1 to finish first in the district 1 meet at Hilliard Darby.

“I want to jump 18-4 to set a new national record or at least hit the 18-foot mark to get another (personal record),” Blankenship said. “But defending my state title is my No. 1 priority because I’ll still have a few more shots at the national record when I compete in national meets in June.  Continue reading →

New Jersey –Clinton-Massie junior Zach Borton said his pole vault goal at the beginning of the 2012 season was to clear 15-6.

He’ll have one more event to reach that goal. And it couldn’t come at a better time should he pull it off.

Borton will compete in the pole vault competition 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Division II State Track & Field Championship at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University.

“We’ll push it at state and see what we can do,” Borton said following his Region 8 championship last week at Welcome Stadium.

Defending state champion Matt Rowland of Bellevue cleared 16-1.5 last week to win his regional meet. The next best height among the 16 entrants, again based on last week’s regional competition, was 14-6. There are six athletes who posted better numbers than Borton last week.

In all, six of the nine underclassmen who qualified for last season’s state meet in the pole vault, have returned to this year’s meet.

Beyond Rowland, the top returnee is Dominic Bell of Gnadenhutten Indian Valley South, who was sixth last year.

But Borton has the district record at 14-9 and the Clinton-Massie record at 15-0, so he has pushed the bar higher than his 14-0 effort last week.

Borton had the region title at 14-0 but then attempted to set a new regional record by going over 15-1. He failed in that regard but could easily have went higher than the 14-0 had he continued up the ladder, so to speak, instead of going right to the regional mark.

That’s why it is so difficult to handicap the competition this week.

Borton was visibly displeased with his three tries at the regional mark. He said at this point in the season, there’s not enough time for a total overall of his pole vaulting technique.

“Work on one thing a week,” he said.

Borton said a bigger pole is one thing he’ll go to at the state meet. He also indicated more speed and the placement of his trail leg on take off are things that can help “get me to the next level.”

The best indicator of how Borton’s day will once Friday arrives, could very well be his maiden voyage on the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium pole vault runway.

“The first jump is the hardest,” said Borton. “Once you get past that, you can have some fun.”  more

 South Dakota –Sidney’s Jalyssa Gorder cleared a personal-record 11 feet, 6 inches to win the Class A state pole vaulting title in Bozeman Saturday.Gorder’s winning vault ranks second in Sidney High School history behind Leila Ben-Youssef, who cleared 12-4 at the state meet in 2000.Gorder’s previous personal record was 11-3.

Gorder placed second at last year’s state meet behind Sidney teammate Mikayla Minow, when each cleared 10-6, but Minow took first for having fewer misses at the previous height.

At this year’s state meet, Hamilton’s Camie Westfall cleared 11-0 to place second behind Gorder. Minow also cleared 11-0, but placed third for having more misses at 10-6.

Corvallis’ Aspen Evans cleared 10-6 to place fourth, Glendive’s Kasey Robson cleared 10-3 to place fifth and Sidney’s Erin Harris cleared 9-6 to place sixth more

The pole vault has taken on an air of uncertainty as state leader Colin Barber of San Ramon Valley — at 16 feet, 7 inches — is injured and has been struggling of late. That could open the door for top returnee Connor Stark of Oak Park, the Southern Section Masters champion, Arcadia Invitational champion Peter Chapman of Murrieta Valley, and hometown talent Kyser Andersonof Clovis West. If there’s one field event which seemingly carries the flag for the girls each year, it’s the pole vault. From former national record holders to future Olympians, our female aerialists have always dazzled on the U.S. stage.

This year  and perhaps for years to come  the trend looks to be continuing. Santa Margarita’s Kaitlyn Merritt took over the state lead with her 13-foot, 3-inch clearance to win her divisional finals meet two weeks ago, setting a national record for ninth graders in the process. Merritt would do very well to claim the gold here, but experience could play a huge role on this stage.That’s where Rancho Bernardo’s McKenzie Johnson comes in. The top returnee in the state, Johnson captured the silver medal here last year and is coached by none other than former world record holder Stacy Dragila. Junior Mimi Lian is another top entry, representing a Rancho Bernardo program with an ultra-rich history in the event. San Jose Presentation’s Taylore Jacques is the fourth 13-footer in the field as California boasts 4 of the top 10 girls in the nation in this event! more