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Your new (longer) pole; the first jump. You can do this.
TIME TO FLY
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CONTENTS
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FROM THE EDITOR
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THE MIGHTY SAINTS
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“NOTHING WAS GOING TO STOP ME”
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THE QUEST OF APRIL STEINER BENNETT
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THE REVEREND BOB RICHARDS
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Cover photo by Joe Saladino
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FROM THE EDITOR Happy April, everyone! This issue of Vaulter Magazine marks 4 years that we have been publishing! 4 years! We definitely could not have done it without the support of our readers and the progression of this wonderful sport that we all love.
The indoor season ended with some amazing performances! Now, everyone is geared up to compete in outdoor season, and we can’t wait to see what some major tailwinds bring! We have a dual cover this month. First we have the Saint Martins University Saints. This young team of pole vaulters is working hard to get ready for the conference championships at the end of outdoor season. Working hard with their two pole vault coaches, Coach Fish and Coach Olivera, these pole vaulters have what it takes to jump big bars this season. Not only is this a great team, but also the school is wonderful. Don’t miss this story!
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Also this month, we have an article that recaps April Steiner Bennett’s TEDx talk. Adele Correale San Miguel writes about Aprils talk, and describes April’s goal. This article is all about April’s experience as a competitor at the Olympics, helping kids learn about pole vault, her experience on Fear Factor, and so much more—take a look!
Pole-vault fan, Phil Presse wrote an article for us this month. He writes about one of his favorite athletes, Bob Richards, and what it was like watching him compete backin-the-day. Phil talks about all the meets he has been to, and what it was like watching pole vault’s transition to the fiberglass pole. Really cool story to read. This man has some great memories of many track and field meets he has been to. This article is one that you do not want to miss.
Wrapping up this month’s issue, is our second cover, Sandi Morris. Let’s all take a
moment and process her performance at the Indoor Championships—she was incredible! It was only a matter of time that she would jump her way into the 16-foot-club—determined not to be left behind. This amazing vaulter went from a 4.80m PR to a 4.95m PR. Her article this month is about her performance at the Indoor Championships, and a little bit of history along the way. We will see more of this vaulter in the near future. Check out her story! That is all we have for this month! Thank you again for keeping us going. You and your support make it all worth it. Until next month, good luck as you jump your way into outdoor season and fly high! Editor Sadie Lovett Sadie@vaultermagazine.com
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WWW.VAULTERMAGAZINE.COM Nicole Buchler
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MAGAZINE Back row l to r: Coach Marc Fish, Matt Dehan, John Chaides, Eunice Yamada, Justin Heller, Craig Boyle, Coach Zach Olivera, Front row l to r: Chris Rickard, Darien Calicdan
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THE MIGHTY Saints By: Sadie Lovett
Darien Calicdan
Just a few weeks into outdoor season, and the Saint Martins University pole vaulters are training hard with their two pole vault coaches, Coach Marc Fish and Coach Zach Olivera. Coach Fish was a pole vaulter for the University of Colorado and has been coaching D1 and D2 pole vault for 15 years. Coach Olivera still pole vaults and has been coaching D2 pole vault for a year.
This season the Saints have a smaller group of pole vaulters, but successful nonetheless. They have three men vaulters, one woman vaulter, three decathletes, and two redshirts vaulters. Their vaulters are from neighboring states—California and Oregon—some are from Washington, and others who are quite a ways from home—Hawaii and Micronesia. This is a young group of athletes. All of the vaulters are either a Freshman or Sophomore, two of the decathletes are Sophomores, and the other decathlete is a Junior. But despite their young ages, this group is working hard to get over big bars. Sophomore Matt Dehan, Washington native, is currently the leader for the men’s
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side. Matt is close to jumping his way into the 16-foot club. On the women’s side is Freshman Darien Calicdan from Hilo, Hawaii. Darien, right now, is in the 10-foot range, and is working her way up to new PRs. This pole vault squad started their track season outdoors in September. Like other teams, their indoor season starts in December and their outdoor season starts in March. Their practices consist of sprint practices and weight lifting, alongside pole vaulting. While some of the athletes stay around school over the summer to continue training, others go home to rest and take it easy to prepare for the upcoming season.
When coaches are recruiting for the Saints track and field team, they look for athletes who excel in athletics and are coachable. They also want students who have good grades coming out of high school or a junior college. The University has a small school environment, but high academic standards. Coaches usually look at a recruiting criteria that they call the Four C’s: Character, Commitment, Coachability, and Community. Specifically for pole vault, coaches like their women vaulters to be jumping at least 10 feet, and men vaulters to be jumping at least 14 feet. The goal is for their vaulters to PR
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at least two feet by the time they graduate from the Saints track and field team.
FUN FACT 2016 INDOOR TOP 3 FOR MEN’S POLE VAULT 1. Renaud Lavillenie – 6.03m – France 2. Shawnacy Barber – 6.00m – Canada 3. Thiago Braz da Silva – 5.93m – Brazil
Saint Martins University was founded in 1895. Though they are a Catholic, Benedictine University, they welcome all students no matter what their faith is. They want a diverse student body, and one that will support their athletes to become the best they can be athletically, academically, and spiritually while at Saint Martins.
The Saints track and field team has had some great pole vaulters in the past. Many broke the school record multiple times and others won conference championships. Many have
scored points for the conference team. They all were successful on the runway, but then they graduated and became very successful in the working world. Some have become nurses, or are continuing school to become doctors. Others engineers, and some pole vault coaches themselves.
There are ten different coaches on this track and field team: Head coach Jim Brewer and assistant coach Kyle Stevenson. Jim is more the middle distance and distance coach, whereas Kyle is the sprints, hurdles, and jumps coach. There are the two pole vault coaches, Coach Fish and Coach Olivera. Then they have three throws coaches,
Craig Boyle
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Matt Dehan
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two assistant distance coaches, and an assistant sprints coach. The pole vaulters also have plenty of equipment to work with. This team primarily uses UCS poles. They have rings, horizontal bars, ropes, slide boxes, and an inverter to use for drills. Throughout the week, these vaulters do numerous pole vault drills along with vault practices. They have many drills that they do on and off the runway, as well as on mats or the floor to prefect their form. At the end of outdoor season, this team will travel to their conference meet where they will compete in the Great
Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC). This D2 conference has good competitors in all events. In pole vault, the conference currently has eight men jumping over 15 feet, and three or four women jumping over 11 feet. But until then, the team has plenty of meets to prepare them for conference. They also have some exciting goals to achieve. Vaulter Eunice Yamada from Micronesia has a chance to break the Micronesia National Pole Vault Record this outdoor season. The mark he has to beat was set 13 years ago and Eunice has his sights set on that record. Outdoor season will be his first season competing for
the Saints—he redshirted his indoor season.
At the end of the day, this team does not simply train and compete together—they are a family. Spending time off the track as much as they do on the track, they do charity work in the community. They have team dinners at a coach’s house. They attend other sport events on campus, as well as the not-so-fun stuff like studying. Being a tightknit group like this makes the traveling time to meets a lot more fun. A team wins together and loses together. A family does it all, and that is exactly what this group of pole vaulters is: a family.
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“NOTHING WAS GOING TO STOP ME” By: Sadie Lovett Making the difficult decision to transfer to Arkansas, Sandi found the coach who would take her to the top.
“As I was driving halfway across the country with a U-haul loaded to the brim, I looked ahead into the endless straight stretch of road surrounded by a green abyss of cow fields and thought that I was crazy—moving to a place I had never spent any time in and didn’t really know anything about. But I guess that’s my personality: just go for the big change because it feels right!” Sandi remembers. The transition was hard to say the least. The training was difficult and Coach Compton
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pushed Sandi harder than she had ever been pushed. But where would she be if it weren’t for that? “We have a great relationship and we are on the same page: we want to win, we want to break records, and we will train harder than you can imagine and go through anything to get there,” Sandi says, “transferring to Arkansas was the most difficult decision of my life, but the best one. For sure.”
Sandi finished her college career with a 15’7.75 PR. Summer of 2015, her first professional season, she hit that mark again. She carried that positivity into this season,
and proved not only to the world, but to herself that she can jump huge bars and do it in the big meets—even under all the pressure and when the bar is set: “I always knew I was a gifted athlete. I knew I was fast and strong, and that I had the potential to jump very high, but to actually do it is a whole other ball game.”
Going into the USATF Indoor Championships, Sandi set two goals for herself. First was to place in the top two to be on the World team. Second was to clear 4.95m. “I knew that if I were able to do that, I could have a chance at winning the meet,” she said. In practices leading up to the Championships, Coach
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Compton had been letting Sandi jump at bars. “I think in the last 3 practices I have probably taken 15 jumps at a 4.95m ba,” Sandi says.
Sandi’s warmups were great: she felt normal on the runway and her body felt ready to go. To be in the top two, Sandi knew she had to give it everything she had and not hold back. For the first half of the competition, Sandi sat in 3rd place with 2nd and 3rd attempt clearances. When the bar moved to 4.85m, Sandi took one jump then passed to 4.90m. A risky move, but she knew that even if she cleared 4.85m, she would still be in 3rd: “I wasn’t there to make 4.85m and get 3rd, I was there to jump 4.95m and get a chance to win it.” Once she got her poles figured out and her standards in the right spot, Sandi went from struggling to competing. Her confidence rose and with the help of adrenaline, determination, and a bigger pole, Sandi achieved both her goals: “Nothing was going to stop me.”
We all saw the videos and pictures of Sandi’s reaction when she cleared 4.95m. Her classic, full body cheer into a front flip of celebration. Videos and pictures showed her run across the track to link hands with her dad.
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What a proud moment for him. He and Sandi’s mom decided to start a track and field journey when they watched their seven-year-old daughter win a race against a boy. Knowing Sandi had something special, they took her to the camps, meets, and coaches that would help her reach her full potential. When Sandi was in 8th grade, a local pole vault coach approached her parents and suggested that Sandi try pole vault. Little did her parents know that the suggestion to try pole vault would start the journey to a professional career. “They are very passionate, extremely wonderful people, and I couldn’t ask for better parents,” Sandi tells us. Growing up so involved in track, Sandi developed very close relationships with each of her parents. Both of them helped coach her—her mom with hurdles and her dad with pole vault. Because of these strong relationships, Sandi can call them when she is having a rough day: “I call [my mom] no matter what is wrong and she always makes me feel better. And if words don’t work, she gets in the car and makes an emergency 15-hour drive to Arkansas to make me feel better!”
Compton. But he stayed right there, learning how to coach Sandi: “He has been right there, a student of pole vault, watching my coach Brian Compton turn his goofy-footed daughter who was like a baby deer learning to walk, into a strong footed, elite race horse,” Sandi says. Sandi’s dad would ask how her vault practices went, and Sandi would fill him in on what poles she
jumped on, her runs, marks, everything. So when the day came for dad to be coach again, when Sandi needed him, he was ready. That day was March 12th. That’s right. The day Sandi became a member of the 16-foot-club, became the U.S. Indoor Champion, went from a 4.80m PR to 4.95m, and became the 3rd highest woman vaulter ever, it was her dad right there with her, like Sandi Morris Inverting at the 2016 World Indoors
Coaching her in high school, Sandi’s dad passed the reigns to her college coach, Brian
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he always has been, this time “coach” as well as dad. “It was the most memorable moment of my life jumping 16+ and seeing the pride in my father’s eyes as I ran over and latched hands with him over the fence,” Sandi tells us. After clearing her 4.95m goal, Sandi heard the announcer say, “and Sandi Morris is your Indoor USA Champion in the women’s pole vault!” It was at that moment that Sandi had processed that she won. “I was still so happy with my PR that the fact that I had won the competition hadn’t entered my brain yet! When I heard those words, I just stood there and soaked it in. USA Champion— that’s a pretty amazing accomplishment,” Sandi tells us.
Sandi ended her indoor season at the World Championships in Portland, Oregon with a second place finish. She had a very successful indoor season. Now, Sandi moves onto outdoor season where she will continue her pole vault journey.
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The big Finish - Sandi Morris at the 2016 World Indoor Meet
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THE QUEST OF APRIL STEINER BENNETT By: Adele Correale San Miguel
“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” Langston Hughes
In the summer of 1992, April Steiner Bennett was a ponytailed 12 year-old, sitting on a couch in her family’s middle class home in Mesa, AZ, when the Olympic spark kindled the flame that became her life’s work. Carl Lewis, then 31, was leaping into gold medal position with an 8.68 meter long jump at the Barcelona Games. Ignited by Lewis’ athleticism and accomplishment, young April persuaded her father to purchase a membership to USATF. That $12 investment became the ticket to her mythic journey
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as an Olympian, professional vaulter, and dream chaser.
Twenty-four years later, April’s torch is still lit. Her laser sharp focus is aimed at representing Team USA in Rio. Coached by 2000 Olympian Stacy Dragila, April embodies a high ideal in athletics, acknowledging those who have made her odyssey possible. It’s not her, it’s them. April coined the term Olympianites to define those who guard dreams. In November 2015, she took the stage at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, to deliver a TEDx Talk on The Beautiful Life of Hidden Olympians. It focused on the parents, coaches, and mentors who encourage others to develop their passions. The Olympian is the dream chaser; the Olympianite, the dream
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maker. Olympianites give ambition its very best chance.
April’s Olympianites include her husband Cameron, who was willing to move to Idaho for her coaching; her parents, Michael and Cara, who feed her a constant stream of enthusiasm and support; and her sponsors ASICS America and UCS Spirit, who supply the essentials so she can focus on the training.
But April’s Olympianites are not limited to a few. A village surrounds her that is made up of families and clubs across the country, as well as a tribe of ‘little sisters’ who are lifted by her encouragement and who inspire her in return. The light in April’s eye, and the integrity of who she is, has attracted a crowd of Olympianites who want for April what she wants for herself. April and Stacy at the 2016 Pole Vault Summit
The theme of these TEDx Talks was Thou Mayest, a philosophy born of John Steinbeck that suggests we each have the choice to improve our own condition, and in doing so, better the collective human experience.
Wearing a white blouse embroidered with the Olympic rings, and an espresso-colored skirt, April commanded attention from the outset by sharing a video clip of her Fear Factor experience. One of her challenges on the reality show in 2004, was to eat a Thanksgiving meal that included maggoty mashed potatoes and cockroach and stinkbug stuffing. Not exactly Olympic Training Center fare.
But April had served as an alternate for the Games that year, and she wanted more. She fought relentlessly in Fear Factor and used the $50,000 win to pay for coaching. The effort paid off. She represented Team USA in Beijing in 2008, finishing 8th in the world.
Eight years have passed and April reframes the meaning of success. It is not what happens when the bar remains in
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place. Success occurs when curiosities and passions are tenaciously cultivated, regardless of outcome. A long career requests that her Olympianites believe with her same conviction. For April, naysayers are dream slayers and while thou may pay them heed, this is a choice that does not serve anyone’s highest good. April does not ask life to serve her with medals. Instead, she asks how her unique talents can steward others. Her own pole-vault adventure has evolved into a crusade to galvanize dream pursuit.
While in vigorous training for the Olympic trials, she and Stacy serve as ambassadors for Vault Safe, a physical education program designed to bring bamboo stick jumping to elementary school children. April takes the physical skills with which she competes at the zenith of her sport, and makes them relatable to a 3rd grader with little prospect of an epic life. She shows youth that trying something new, like jumping over things with a stick, creates an opening for confidence to root and possibility to breathe. Nearly 5,000 children have been emboldened by their efforts. Limits do not exist for this vault chick. Both Olympian and Olym-
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pianite, April boldly crystallizes her own vision while paying forward what has been granted her: generosity of spirit and a safe place for hope to manifest.
Her legacy will have the watermark of the Olympic rings and the enduring glow of a life intentionally lived. April pole vaulting at the 2016 pole vault summit
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Pole Vault Clinics & Camps
“The Unfair Advantage!” 803.315.5998
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85 SCHS State Champions, 11 National Champions, and 3 “Team USA” (World Team) since 1998.
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THE REVEREND BOB RICHARDS By: Phil Pressel
Bob Richards: A Pole Vaulter and one of my all-time favorite track and field athletes by a long-time fan of my favorite sport, Track & Field.
My interest in track and field started in 1948 when I was 10 years old and my father took me to my first track meet at Randalls Island in New York City. My father had been the athletic director of the Maccabi sports club in Antwerp, Belgium where I was born. He was also their track coach. From that time on, I went to meets on a regular basis and to this day, in 2016, continue
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to do so. As a matter of fact my wife, older son, and I are going to Portland, Oregon for 4 days in March to the World Indoor Championships. We expect to see among other world caliber athletes, the men and women’s current pole vault world record holders, Jenn Suhr of the United States and Renaud LaVillenie of France. I am in the process of writing a book about my favorite track and field athletes and most memorable events in the last 68 years of watching all sorts of track and field competitions including high school, college, national, international
meets and Olympic Games. I have also been privileged to be a certified track and field official for many years.
Now as far as the pole vault is concerned, I consider it as two sporting events, namely before the use of the fiberglass pole and after its use. The old world record with the bamboo or aluminum poles was 15 feet 8 ½ inches indoors set in 1943, and 15 feet 7 ¾ outdoors set in 1942 by Cornelius Warmerdam. Both events required strength, acrobatic agility, and good timing. In pre-fiberglass
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FUN FACT 2016 INDOOR TOP 3 FOR WOMEN’S POLE VAULT 1. Jennifer Suhr – 5.03m – USA 2. Sandi Morris – 4.95m – USA 3. Ekaterini Stefanidi – 4.90m – Greece
times, the bar was set to the higher heights in small increments and the clearances of the bar was most often by fractions of an inch instead of usually many inches with the fiberglass pole. When I watched the old timers jump I could see their muscles straining to get over that bar, often brushing the bar with part of their body. I still think it was more exciting when the vaulter cleared the bar by a fraction of an inch. However, you can’t stop progress and in this case, progress meant the fiberglass pole could get you to go much higher. One other great difference was that in the “old” days the vaulters landed in a pit made of wood shavings. At much higher heights, vaulters needed foam type pits for better protection when landing from greater heights.
When the fiberglass pole days arrived, so many of the vaulters’ jumps cleared by a hefty margin. That is when I came to the belief that the pole vault had become a new event, the heights were then bypassed by at least a foot, and of course, now 19 feet is almost standard. I lived and went to school in New York until I graduated college, and this gave me the opportunity to see many
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track meets, some outdoors but mostly at the old, then the new Madison Garden. In those days, there were 5 meets during the winter months. They were the Knights of Columbus meet, the National AAU meet, the NYAC meet, the IC4A meet, and the Millrose Games. I usually went to 3 or 4 of them until years later, all but the Millrose and the AAU meets were abandoned.
My favorite by far was the Millrose Games, in my opinion the best indoor meet in the world for many years. Until I left the New York and Connecticut area after retirement from my work, I attended 43 Millrose meets and still have most of those programs, except perhaps for the first few when I did not have enough money to buy one.
I got to learn about all of the events and outstanding athletes, and my 3 favorite ones were Bob Richards, Mal Whitfield in the 600 or 800 yard runs, and Harrison Dillard in the sprint hurdles. I so admired Bob Richards. He had a great physique and an interesting warm up procedure and when I got to see him, he usually won. I remember him saying “I am the only preacher trying to get to heaven on his own strength.”
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During warm-ups, he ran up and down the sprint alley in the middle of the track, then holding the pole he ran down the pole vault runway, planted the pole, went half way up, still upright, not curled up, to the bar then reversed course and returned to plant his feet back on the runway. It was a process that I had not seen other vaulters do. During warm-ups, most of them planted their pole and tried jumping over the bar instead of stopping half way up. Bob’s competitors included Don Laz (a lefty), Bob Gutowski, Don Bragg (known as Tarzan), and Gerry Welbourn. Bob Richards was the second pole vaulter to clear 15 feet. Warmerdam was the first.
I remember the 1957 Millrose Games when Bob Richards and Bob Gutowski tied for first place with jumps of 15 feet 6 inches (4.72m). This was Bob Richard’s PR and was a Millrose and Madison Square Garden record at the time. Overall Bob Richards won 11 Millrose Games pole vaults. Of course he did quite well in the Olympics. He took a bronze medal in the 1948 London Games; he won the gold in 1952 in Helsinki and in 1956
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in Melbourne, Australia. In Helsinki he beat Don Laz and in Melbourne he beat Bob Gutowski. He is the only vaulter to win 2 Olympic gold medals.
Other than the Olympics, I have a few special memories of seeing Bob in person at Madison Square Garden. In the 1955 Millrose Games, he jumped 15 feet 2 inches and beat Don Laz and Gerry Welbourn who jumped 14’6, but the actual highlight of this meet was in the Wanamaker Mile where Gunnar Nielsen of Denmark beat Wes Santee with a time of 4.03.6, which was a new indoor world record. In the 1956 Millrose Games Bob won at 15’4 and beat Don Bragg and Gerry Welbourn who tied at 14’6. This was Bob’s 88th jump over 15 feet.
The first Russia-USA track meet was held at Franklin Field in Philadelphia in July 1959 and I was there. The pole vault was won by Don Bragg at 15’2 ¾ with Russian Vladimir Bulatov second, Igor Petrenko third, and Ron Morris fourth at 14 feet. The highlights of that meet for me were also the shot put won by Parry O’Brien with a throw of 62’2 3/4. Ray Norton won the 100 meters at 10.3
seconds. In the 110 hurdles, Hayes Jones beat Lee Calhoun at 13.6. Al Oerter won the discus at 188’9; Tamara Press of Russia won the women’s shot put at 55’6 ¾. She was a big lady, 5’11” and 193 pounds. The javelin was won by (here is another great name from the past for us “old timers”), Al Cantello at 262’5. The mile winner was Dyrol Burleson at 3.49.4 and beat Jim Grelle who clocked the same time. These are all great memories and it is fun to recall and write about them. One problem is that there are not enough opportunities to talk about them with other “old timers” who really cared and loved the sport.
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