PoleVaultPower.com

Good day PVP. I come here today, partially in hope of appeal, but moreso as a form of justification for myself.

Last Thursday, I drove three hours to participate in the state qualifying meet for the CVC district meet for Oregon. While I was naturally stressed about making it to State, I was comforted by my first place ranking. I had achieved state qualification for the past two years, and this being my senior year, was excited for what would hopefully be a first place medal.

The meet began like any other. My warm ups were solid, my technique was unchanged, my body was energetic. There was something different about this meet though. I had never competed at this field before, so I had no opportunity to prepare for this anomaly. There was a visible incline in the runway. This, in combination with a slight headwind, a very soft track, and a sun that was setting in the same angle as the pole vault runway, led to me no-heighting.

The distraught came immediately afterwards. I was ranked (1 inch from) 4th in Oregon. It was my Senior year. I qualified for State the past two years. My opening height at the past two meets would have been first place. My PR was ranked first in the district. I had cleared 34 inches higher than opening height (in practice) only 3 days before competing. I was and still am upset.

My opening height was 12'6, a laughable height that I intended to clear and then skip to 13'6. I had never competed on this runway before, however, many of the other schools at the meet had competed there. (My school was put into a hybrid league this year to cut back on travel, but districts was still in Salem.) I have absolutely no doubt that if I had competed on a different runway, I would not have no-heighted. (Note: I've opened with AT LEAST 12'6 every single meet but the first one this year and have cleared it every time.)

So now my question arises: is there anything that I can do to try to salvage my trip to State? The NFHS rulebook says,

"ART. 1… The inclination in the approach shall be limited to 2:100 (2 percent) laterally and 1:1000 (0.1 percent) in the running direction in the jumping direction."

I would presume that a visible incline would be a breach of these rules? (As I don't have objective data on the runway, please assume that a visible incline would correlate to a breach of this rule.) Is there any way that I could try to contest the vault competition or appeal my no height? The host school's varsity vaulter's heights were 11'6, 10'6, 8'6 (guys). I don't believe that they even have a vault coach. They could have easily overlooked this rule when building the track. (They had it resurfaced this winter.)

Is there anything that I can do? State is next Friday.

Probably not...

Rules like that usually just are put there for guide lines when building the track but have no merit during the actual meet. You may have had an incline, but so did everyone else. And sometimes it is an advantage to always practice on those crappy tracks, in high school my school had an asphalt runway that ran up hill and I think that helped me at other places because I was used to the worst.

But sometimes the worst conditions are even worse for the higher vaulters because they never want to go down and jump on a smaller pole or sometimes they just do not have the right pole to adjust to crappy situations. But because everyone had the same situation as you I highly doubt there is anything you can do about it.

If the facility is a problem it needs to be resolved in advance. There's nothing you can do now. Everyone jumped on the same runway. You have to make the right adjustments with pole and grip to meet the conditions, whether they be a headwind, tailwind, slow runway, fast runway, etc.

Sorry your senior year ended on a sour note. Maybe you can do some summer meets and end on a better note.

Matthew,
I was really bummed to hear that you NH'd at districts, and even more bummed that you feel like the facility was a factor. Often times bad facilities can affect good vaulters more than beginner vaulters. Unfortunately, I think you don't have much chance for recourse in this case.

You are a good vaulter, a good coach to your fellow athletes, and a great student. You should be able to continue in the sport at the next level, especially considering the fact that you can attend any college you want, probably with an academic scholarship. Come out and jump with us this summer if you can! We should be having at least a few open meets, I'll keep you posted

Tom