EUGENE — Rick Baggett got his start pole vaulting in Pasco.
Now he is going to help other Tri-Cities youngsters in the sport.
The 1972 Pasco High graduate, who now runs the Willamette Striders Track Club in Oregon City, Ore., is working with Kennewick Parks and Recreation to bring a pole vault class to the Southridge Sports Complex this October. Baggett got his start as a pole vaulter in eighth grade at Stevens Middle School as a youngster, he then cleared a school record 15 feet, 9 3/4 inches at Pasco High in 1972, and went on to compete at Washington State. He qualified for an Olympic Trials, but didn’t compete because of injury.
On Sunday, he was in Eugene at the Olympic track and field trials watching one of his former students – Becky Holliday – take second place in the women’s pole vault, and earning an Olympic berth. The University of Oregon national champion cleared 14-11 to earn the berth.
It is the first Olympian he has coached.
“It was great. Really, really good,” Baggett said. “It’s a big deal.”
Holliday is just one of many lives that Baggett has touched throughout the years, helping students earn nearly $2 million in athletic scholarships by working with the Striders programs.

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Clackamas Community College (CCC) alumna and world-class pole vaulter Becky Holliday is headed to London for the Summer Olympics. Holliday qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in pole vaulting competition over the weekend at the Olympic trials in Eugene, jumping 14 feet, 11 inches, and taking second place. Holliday is the national junior college record holder, and school record holder at both CCC and the University of Oregon, where she was named the NCAA champion in 2003. A native of Reno, Nev., Holliday was the state high school pole vault champion before arriving in Oregon on a track and field scholarship. At CCC, she was the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges pole vault champion in both 2000 and 2001. She’s been a pole vaulter now for 15 years. Holliday is not the first CCC alum to participate in the Olympics. Former CCC wrestler Matt Lindland won the silver medal in his weight class in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. CCC athlete Brian Abshire competed in steeplechase, and Lisa Ondicki was the silver medalist in the marathon in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.  more

Rockford, Illinois-Freeport native Mark Hollis won’t be headed to London for the Olympics. He came up just short Thursday evening in the pole vault at the Olympic Track & Field Trials in Oregon.
Hollis cleared 18 feet 4.5 inches which was the second best height of the night, but he lost out on tiebreakers to two other vaulters who also cleared that height Jeremy Scott and Derrick Miles.
American record holder Brad Walker had the best vault of the night 18 feet 7 1/4 inches  more

Jenn Suhr, Becky Holliday and Lacy Janson react to making the 2012 U.S. Olympic team in the women’s pole vault.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Former Arkansas pole vault standout Jeremy Scott has secured a spot on the 2012 Olympic team after placing second in competition at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. Scott qualified for his first Olympic Games after making first-attempt clearances at the first three heights and finishing the day with a final mark of 5.60m/18-4.5. Scott was the 2004 Southeastern Conference outdoor champion and All-American during his one season at Arkansas. Olympic competition in the event begins Aug. 8 in London  more

SIOUX FALLS (AP) — South Dakota pole vaulter Derek Miles has qualified for his third Olympics. The 39-year-old Tea resident and assistant track coach at the University of South Dakota finished fourth in the finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., on Thursday — one spot away from an advancing top-three spot. However, he qualified for the Summer Games in London because he had previously attained the Olympic “A’ standard height — in Germany about a year ago — while the third-place finisher had not. “This didn’t happen the way I would have wanted it to happen,” Miles told the Argus Leader newspaper. “But given the circumstances and the conditions, I’ll take it. “The conditions were really tricky,” he said. “You had rain, you had headwinds, some weird sidewinds — it was a real difficult meet.” Miles competed at the Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 2004, finishing seventh, and in the 2008 Games in Beijing, China, where he finished fourth, just missing a medal. The first round of the pole vault competition in London is Aug. 8, which will give Miles more time to recover from a recent Achilles injury. “I have a month where I can travel, find some people who can help me try to get my Achilles under control,” he said. “Then I’ll still have time to put in some quality training so that hopefully I’ll be able to go into it feeling like I can be very competitive.”  source

EUGENE, Ore. — Brad Walker won his fourth U.S. pole vault title, clearing 18 feet, 7 1/4 inches at the Olympic track trials Thursday night for a spot on the U.S. team for the London Games. Jeremy Scott was second at 18-4 1/.4, and Scott Roth third at the same height, but Roth does not have the Olympic “A standard this season of 18-9 1/4 required to compete in the Olympics. The third spot on the team went to fourth-place finisher Derek Miles, who finished fourth at the Beijing Games. Walker (University of Washington/University High) set the American record of 19-9 3/4 at the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in 2008. He finished third in the Olympic trials that year before no-heighting in Beijing.  more

 EUGENE, Ore.- Polson native Melinda Owen finished 13th in the Women’s Pole Vault at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., last Sunday. Owen, a 2003 graduate of Polson High School, needed to clear the qualifying height of 14 feet 9 inches to have a shot at one of three possible spots on the U.S. Olympic Team.Owen cleared the competition’s opening height of 13 feet 11 1/4 inches on her second attempt, but could not surpass the next mark of 14 feet 5 1/4 inches.Her personal record of 14 feet 11 inches would have tied for second place at the trials.Though grappling with pain and disappointment, hope springs eternal for Owen. Recent postings on her blog and Twitter feed reflect feelings of “heartbreak… and new beginnings.”Tremendously appreciative of the groundswell of support from friends and family near and far, Owen seems to be putting last weekend’s events in perspective and is setting new goals for her career, which she has made clear is far from over. Her latest blog entry concludes by stating that her sights are now set on making the U.S. World Championship Team for next summer’s competition in Moscow, Russia   more

ARLINGTON,Texas– Temperatures soared to well over 100 degrees on the track at the USA Youth Track & Field Championships in Arlington, Texas. The competition kicked off Tuesday at Maverick stadium at The University of Texas-Arlington.

Decathlon Young Men

                               Points      100       LJ           SP             HJ           400     110H       DT           PV       JT           1500

1 Jazdyk, Steven                 11.41  6.26m   11.63m    1.70m    54.91  16.95   29.74m    3.95m   41.76m  5:13.19

    unattached          5790    (771)    (644)    (584)    (544)    (602) 3145    (629)    (459)    (603)    (468)    (486)

2 Snow, Scott                    12.73    5.76m    9.62m    1.80m    54.11   17.28   28.22m    3.05m   39.62m  4:28.50

    unattached         5360    (515)    (535)    (463)    (627)    (635) 2775    (595)    (430)    (369)    (437)    (754)

3 BenBen, Ridge               12.40    5.05m    8.47m    1.70m    59.29         19.57   26.66m    2.60m   38.10m  5:06.47

              Wildcats    4327    (574)    (392)    (394)    (544)    (438)     2342    (384)    (399)    (264)    (415)    (523)     Continue reading →