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Double-duty Dockendorf









Blythe Lawrence
2004-02-24


At the age of 16 Husky gymnast Carly Dockendorf left her sport to find herself -- and in the process she found a sport she was equally good at.

In the middle of her third year at the UW, Dockendorf, a native of Port Moody, British Columbia, has vaulted her way into the UW record books -- both as a gymnast and a pole vaulter.

In Canada, there are more than 1 million young women training in gymnastics clubs across the country, hoping one day to be eligible for one of six spots on a team headed to the Olympics.

Dockendorf rose from being one of those young women to becoming an elite gymnast with a legitimate chance to claim a spot on the Canadian Olympic 3. A gymnast since the age of three, Dockendorf ascended to the elite level of gymnastics after more than 10 years of training.

By the time she was 16, Dockendorf racked up a resume of accomplishments few gymnasts dream of achieving, including a fourth-place finish in the all-around at the 1996 Junior Pan-American Games. In 1998, she placed sixth at the Canadian National Championships -- an accomplishment that could have set her on the fast track for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

But a ticket to the Olympics comes with a price. Elite gymnasts often train more than 30 hours per week. Between gymnastics and schoolwork, most don't have time to pursue activities outside the gym. During their teenage years, gymnasts often forgo social events in favor of training and competition.

As a result, many gymnasts quit club competition to regain their teenage years..

"Carly is an enigma," said Husky gymnastics coach Bob Levesque. "She's so talented, but she had a lot of fears when she was a gymnast in Canada. If you push her too hard, she'll break."

For Dockendorf, the breaking point came in 1998, the night before she was supposed to leave to compete in Canada's Commonwealth Games.

"I called my coach and told her I couldn't do it anymore," said Dockendorf. But rather than leave gymnastics for good, she came up with a more unique solution -- she left her club for a year to experience life outside of a gym.

"[During my year off] I did women's wrestling, women's rugby, volleyball and track," said Dockendorf. But her sports buffet did not include pole vault, something she had always wanted to try.

"They were all fun sports, and I really enjoyed them, but I didn't have the same passion for them that I have for gymnastics," she said.

In the end, Dockendorf returned to her club, the Abbotsford Twisters, in Port Moody. One year later, she became a freshman at UW.

"Competing in college is a lot less stressful than doing club. It's less serious and stressful," said Dockendorf. "Here, we're so close. These girls (on the gymnastics team) are like my sisters."

Dockendorf's "family" on the gymnastics team includes her former club coach, Heidi Coleman, who accepted the position as beam coach for the UW two years ago, and freshman Darcee Schiller, a teammate from her club days in gymnastics.

"Carly is exactly the same as she was when I knew her a couple years ago," said Schiller. "She's very positive and always has a smile on her face. She's a lot of fun to be around."

After competing on the gymnastics team during the 2002 season and being named the team's most promising freshman, Dockendorf decided she was still hungry for new experiences in sports.

After attending a track meet in the spring of 2002, Dockendorf went to the track coach and told him she wanted to learn how to pole vault.

She had never held a pole in her life.

"I don't think he actually expected me to go through with it," she said. "He was like, 'OK, be at this place at this time, and you can try it.'"

Pole vault coach Pat Licari didn't know what Dockendorf was capable of, but he soon found out.

Only two weeks after she started working out with the pole-vaulting team, Dockendorf competed in her first track meet, clearing a height of 12 feet 2 inches, earning her a berth to the Pac-10 regionals, where she placed eighth. Her mark of 12 feet 5 inches at the 2003 Pac-10 regionals is the second-highest height cleared by a female vaulter in UW history.

"She's a really talented athlete, and that's really apparent that she was able to pick it up in two weeks and compete against just about anyone," Licari said. "She's very strong and fast, and her mental toughness is really good. She's only going to go up and up."

It didn't take Dockendorf long to fall in love with her newfound sport either. "I was like, 'This is awesome, I love this, it's a brand new challenge for me,'" she said, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm. "I had no idea how to do it, I had no idea what I was doing, and I just took it from there."

Dockendorf has proved as successful on the track as she is in the gym. When the gymnastics team traveled to Boise to take on Boise State on Feb. 6, Dockendorf won the all-around title. Less than a day later, she cleared 12 feet 5.5 inches as the track team faced Boise State, tying for fourth place in the competition.

Dockendorf said her gymnastics training helps her in pole vaulting, but track and field keeps her mentally grounded.

"I get bored really easily," she admitted with a laugh. [Pole vault] helps me to take my mind off gymnastics and gives me something else to think about. That's something that works well for me."

Apparently, it works well for the gymnastics and track teams also.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/otherspor ... gym26.html

UW's Carly Dockendorf excels at pole vaulting and gymnastics


By JANNY HU
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The morning after Carly Dockendorf lifted fans to their feet with a perfect floor routine, she struggled to lift herself out of bed.

There went the alarm at 7:30 a.m., just hours after Dockendorf first had shut her eyes. With muscles throbbing and a groggy head, she downed several cups of coffee, popping Tylenol tablets in between.

University of Washington

A few hours later, she was hurling herself through the air again, this time attempting to clear 12 feet in the pole vault.

Elite gymnast by night, rising track star by day?

That's been the 21-year-old Dockendorf's motif since arriving at the UW three years ago.

Dockendorf is believed to be the only Division-I athlete simultaneously competing in two sports this season.

Earlier this month, she even did it on the road, winning the all-around competition at Boise State on Friday night and finishing fourth in the pole vault at the Bronco Invite the next morning.

As far as the UW media relations staff is concerned, it was a school first.

It's also a distinction Dockendorf finds as novel as sliced bread.

"People are like, 'How do you do two sports' or 'Why?' " Dockendorf said. "Well, why not? This is what I do. It'd be like me asking someone, 'Why do you do only one sport?'

"I know it's not normal, but it's me. It's who I am. It's been my life forever."

The effervescent junior from Port Moody, B.C., exudes energy, which isn't so much a bonus as a requirement, considering her busy schedule every January through April.

Her daily routine is more rigid than a balance beam: She has morning classes until 11:30, grabs lunch, and pole vaults from about noon until 1:30. She then runs from Dempsey Indoor uphill to Hec Edmundson Pavilion, where she'll practice gymnastics for the next four hours.

Dockendorf is a gymnast first. She has earned more 10s (four) than any athlete in Huskies history. She won the floor and vault titles at last year's NCAA West Regional and placed sixth in the floor at the NCAA Championships.

Dockendorf hasn't lost a floor competition since the Huskies' season opener, when she fell on her first tumbling pass at the Cancun Invitational in Mexico on Jan. 2. Since then, she's reeled off six consecutive victories, including a 10.0 two Fridays ago against Arizona State at home.

That was the night before she competed in the Pac-10 Invitational track and field meet at Dempsey Indoor on a coffee-induced caffeine kick. Not that Dockendorf was complaining. No matter how tired she was after juggling two sports in a 12-hour span, she gave Huskies gymnastics coach Bob Levesque credit for even allowing her to compete that Saturday.

What coach wouldn't quake at the thought of his athlete twisting an ankle during the season -- much less launching herself 13 feet in the air on a pole? It's why football coaches allow players to run track only after the football season is over, and why many pro athletes have it written into their contracts that they are prohibited from participating in dangerous sports or activities.

Yet Levesque, although concerned about losing a scholarship athlete to injury, also understands that granting Dockendorf the opportunity to pole vault can be a win-win situation.

"We've made concessions here and there, but she's also working her butt of for us," Levesque said. "And I think her gym has improved so much since she started doing pole vault -- not because of pole vaulting, but because it gives her the relief of doing something else she loves to do.

"It's sort of like a diversion."

Dockendorf's always had plenty of those. She was skiing by age 2, playing soccer at 3 and sailing at 5. When she quit gymnastics for a year and a half, she replaced it with soccer, volleyball, track and rugby. Dockendorf even wrestled for a few years, and was B.C. champion in high school.

She picked up pole vaulting her freshman year at the UW, immediately after her gymnastics season ended in mid-April. It wasn't completely on a lark: Dockendorf's boyfriend, Brad Walker, is the reigning NCAA pole vaulting champion.

The first time she tried vaulting, she made an awkward approach, planted her pole, and maybe got a few feet off the ground.

Two weeks later, using a borrowed pole and flat shoes, she cleared 12 feet, 1 1/2 inches at the Ken Foreman Invitational. The mark would have been the fourth best in school history had Dockendorf officially been entered in the meet.

She placed eighth at the Pac-10 Championships, 13th at the NCAA West Regionals last season. Coach Pat Licari is convinced that with ample training -- and without the exhaustion of competing in gymnastics the night before a track meet -- Dockendorf will be a force on the national scene.

"She's pretty tired the day after the gym meets, so she hasn't come nearly close to what she's capable off," Licari said. "She's only going to continue to go higher and higher. She hasn't really even got the tip of the iceberg."

Dockendorf's best stands at 12 feet, 11 1/2 inches, which puts her among her country's best pole vaulters and qualifies for the Canadian Olympic Trials in Victoria this summer. Making the Olympic team is a distinct possibility if she can achieve the qualifying standard of 14 feet, 8 inches.

Dockendorf knows her athletic future is in pole vaulting, in which she'll have a full year of eligibility left after her UW gymnastics career ends next season.

But until then, she'll have to keep explaining to her gym coaches how she so easily flings herself up, up, up in the air, but trembles at times on the balance beam.

"They say they would be way more scared to pole vault than get out on the beam," Dockendorf said. "I say, 'No, it's not the same.' I mean, the beam's like four inches wide. It's not going to be everyone's best friend."


THE DOCKENDORF FILE

AGE: 21

YEAR/MAJOR: Junior, undecided

HOMETOWN: Port Moody, B.C.

RANKINGS: Fourth nationally in floor exercise, second regionally -- 9.945 average.

PERFECT 10s: Four (UW career leader)

CHARTING CARLY




Date
Meet
Score

Jan. 2
at Cancun, Mexico
9.4

Jan. 16
Cal/Sac State
9.950 (1)

Jan. 23
at Oregon State
9.925 (1)

Jan. 30
Stanford
9.975 (1)

Feb. 6
at Boise State
9.925 (1)

Feb. 13
Arizona State
10.0 (1)

Feb. 20
at Arizona
9.950 (1)

Tomorrow
vs. UCLA
7 p.m.
Place in parenthesis

Carly is popular this week!


http://www.tribnet.com/sports/story/478 ... 8003c.html

UW two-sport star can do it all - except stand still

DAVE BOLING; The News Tribune

Heightened competition and the demands for specialized training - not to mention attrition through sheer exhaustion - have left the collegiate two-sport star a species near extinction.

But even those remaining few seem like lounge-about slackers when compared to Washington's versatile and energetic Carly Dockendorf, who not only trains and competes in two sports, but does so simultaneously.

Last season's Huskies MVP in gymnastics, who also has the second-highest women's pole vault mark in school history, explains her hyper-kinetic lifestyle simply:

"I get bored easily.''

A junior from Port Moody, B.C., Dockendorf registered three perfect 10 scores last season, a record for UW gymnasts, and has elevated her pole vault PR to 12 feet, 11 1/2 inches.

The first weekend in February provided an example of her concurrent excellence: She won the all-around gymnastics competition in a meet at Boise State, and 12 hours later took fourth in the pole vault at the Boise Invitational indoor track meet.

A typical day? Classes from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; vaulting from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; gymnastics from 1:45 p.m. to 5 p.m. Collapse in a heap at 5:01.

Study?

"I pretty much have to work on that during the day if I get time because if I have to do it in the evening it can sometimes feel like an impossible task," she said.

Sleep? "Ah, yes, one of those secondary things."

The challenge of this double involvement seems less daunting to Dockendorf because she's always been allergic to inactivity. Even when she competed solely in gymnastics as a freshman, she took part in intramural soccer and volleyball just to keep her day-planner filled.

Keep in mind, as an all-around gym competitor, she's working on four separate disciplines - beam, uneven bars, vault and floor exercise - plus the pole vault.

Upper-body strength, leg power, body control and spatial awareness are some of the obvious carryovers between the events.

But so is fearlessness. Dockendorf hears comments from awed friends wondering how she can be comfortable flying over a bar nearly 13 feet in the air. Compared to some of the stunts required on the 4-inch balance beam, vaulting is not so frightening, she explained.

Of course, she's been a gymnast since age 3, and actually a daredevil even before that.

"When I was 2 years old, I climbed up a fire-escape ladder on the house and sat on our roof,'' she said of her early and creative exploration for gym apparatus. "I used to jump on coffee tables, smash my head on that type of thing. I'd practice routines in the basement, on the couch, my parents' bed.''

At age 8, she'd trained so much that her strength and balance allowed her to do a handstand at the base of a flight of stairs, walk up the stairs, turn around and come back down ... on her hands.

Never satisfied with mere excellence in the gym, she won provincial titles in wrestling (a girls sport in British Columbia) and pole vaulting, while also competing in rugby.

"I didn't have a lot of technique in wrestling, but I knew I was going to have a much stronger upper body than the girls in my weight class,'' she said.

As expected, there was collateral damage. She broke one opponent's collarbone, another's jaw.

"Hey, it's a rough sport ... we're not out there to play nice," she said.

After showing up to give the pole vault a try at UW, Dockendorf started to get individualized tutoring from Washington's record-setting vaulter Brad Walker, who has cleared 19 feet and has obvious Olympic potential of his own.

They're now boyfriend-girlfriend - a pairing of two vaulters in what we must conclude constitutes a bi-polar relationship.

"He helps me so much," she said. "He understands the pressure of national level athletics, and he's been able to share some of his wisdom with me on how to physically and mentally prepare for competitions."

Vault coach Pat Licari points out that Dockendorf is still very new to the event, and the NCAA's weekly 20-hour restriction on practices and competition leaves her little time to work on much aside from basic vaulting technique.

But her strength and athleticism are certainly attributes she brings in abundance.

"She's so well conditioned and so talented athletically,'' Licari said. "She picked it up on a whim and within two weeks she was jumping high enough to vault at the Pac-10 level. She is very driven to get better, and her energy is obviously very good to be able to handle it.''

The newness of pole vaulting makes it exciting for Dockendorf.

"Both sports bring different things to my life," she said, "but gymnastics, deep down, is still my passion."

Her primary focus returns to gymnastics now as conference, regional and national championships are approaching, which will reduce or restrict her vaulting. For now.

She doubts that post-graduate competition in gymnastics is likely, but she points out that pole vaulters can continue to improve into their early 30s, and she's already the fifth-ranked Canadian in the event. She'd have to get up into the 14-foot range to have a shot at the 2004 Athens Olympics, she speculated.

But nothing seems impossible to Dockendorf.

Nothing, that is, except standing still.

http://thedaily.washington.edu/sports.l ... 31&-search

Dockendorf develops into Huskies' 'rock'

SCOTT JACKSON / The Daily

UW senior Carly Dockendorf won her 45th career 1st place finish against Cal last month, scoring a 9.9 on the bars.

By Eric Nusbaum
March 03, 2005

Senior Carly Dockendorf is Washington's most accomplished gymnast. She has more perfect 10s than anyone in UW history. But high scores on the mat are only part of her story.

She is the team's unquestioned captain, leading vocally, and by example. Oh, and she is also the seventh-ranked pole vaulter in Canadian history.

It has been a long road for Dockendorf, who is having her best year as a senior.

That is surprising, considering how she got to Washington. When things did not work out at her first choice Michigan, she took it into her own hands and called UW gymnastics coach Bob Levesque. After a few short conversations, Dockendorf was a Husky. And at this rate, the rest will make a very impressive history.

Dockendorf is well aware of how much she has matured as a gymnast, and as a person, during her career.

"When I came here, I was scared a lot in gymnastics," she said. "Every year I built a little more confidence in myself. If Bob or Heidi or Frank (the coaching staff) had ever given up on me, I would have given up on myself."

She has developed into the squads' go-to performer, leading the team in average on bars, floor and beam, and won her first vault title since her freshman year. Dockendorf has scored below a 9.700 in only two events this season.

Unfortunately, with all her success, Dockendorf has had to overcome new obstacles. For the first time in her career, she has faced injury problems. A nagging knee issue has held her out of a handful of meets, and kept her from competing in all four events. But she has kept a bright, positive attitude throughout.

"Injuries are part of the sport," Dockendorf said. "You can feel sorry for your self, or you can make something of what you do have. Being more vocal in the gym, supporting the team."

This is a team that has no problem supporting each other, and Dockendorf tries to take inspiration from everybody.

"I learn from them every day," she said. "Watching Molly Seaman, suffering from a surgical incision that won't heal, push through that inspires me to believe that I can do it. They are there for me like a family would be. You work hard because you feel like you want to win not just for yourself, but for all the other girls."

Her teammates however, learn even more from her.

"She's a rock for all the kids to climb on. She can take it all on her shoulders," Levesque said. "She is very vocal, and very motivated, and very supportive. She keeps the team up."

Teammate freshman Julie Medeiros echoes her coaches sentiments.

"I have known her my whole life, and for me she has always been a leader," she said. "She always finds the good side of things."

But Dockendorf states she has had to work at leadership.

"Being a senior and being a team captain has made me more vocal," she said. "I have learned a lot about myself, being a leader (vocally) is one thing, but acting on it is another."

And effort has been her forte in her four years at the UW.

"She works hard," Levesque said, "as hard as anybody."

Her goals for the season included becoming more consistent, and turning beam from her least natural event to one of her best. She currently leads the team in beam average, and is one of the top all-around performers in the nation. Dockendorf also serves with teammate Seaman as the gymnastics representative on the Washington Student-Athlete Advisory Council and competes on the UW track team.

With her injury problems this year, Dockendorf has not been able to pole vault. But even if she was, her priorities are with gymnastics.

"It makes it more fun," she explains. "Pole vaulting has always been a place for me to mentally check out of gymnastics."

That does not mean she is not serious about track in her future. Dockendorf will return to the UW for her fourth year of track in 2006, and has bigger things in mind.

"My ultimate goal is Beijing 2008, competing for Team Canada," she said.

Dockendorf is a focused athlete. She has found confidence as both a performer and a leader. But even so, gymnastics is not her life.

"Before coming to college, doing other sports gave me a bigger picture on life. That gymnastics isn't my life, it is just something I do," she said.

"Now, I don't take it for granted," she said. "In a month and a half, I won't be able to do gymnastics again."

While sports is not her driving force in life, Dockendorf still has a passion for what she does. When asked her favorite event, she is quick to respond with floor exercise. Why?

"I guess I just love to perform." she said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/h ... tic08.html

UW double-threat Dockendorf leads the quest for title

By Terry Wood

Special to The Seattle Times


Sports just seem to come better in pairs for Carly Dockendorf.

The University of Washington senior is a two-sport star. The native of Port Moody, B.C., is the captain and top performer on the UW gymnastics team, one of six teams participating in the West Regionals of NCAA women's gymnastics tomorrow at 5 p.m. at Edmundson Pavilion. The top two teams advance to the NCAA championships at Auburn, April 21-23.

Dockendorf also ranks among the country's leading collegiate pole vaulters. In March, one day after competing in a gymnastics meet in Salt Lake City against top-ranked Utah, she flew to Arkansas and placed 17th in the pole vault at the NCAA track-and-field indoor championships.

"I've done two or three sports at a time every year of my life except for two years," said the 5-foot-4 Dockendorf. "I guess I was a slacker then."

Last year Dockendorf finished 11th in the pole vault at the NCAA outdoor track championships. Earlier that spring she was Washington's lone qualifier at the NCAA gymnastics championships, tying for 24th on floor.

That's a rare twin bill: one athlete competing in two Division I NCAA championships in the same year. No one around the school is certain of how often such a feat has been accomplished.


NCAA West Regional




Where: Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington

When: Tomorrow, 5 p.m.

Who: No. 2 UCLA (20-3, defending NCAA champion), No. 11 Penn State (23-6), No. 14 Central Michigan (17-6), No. 24 Washington (13-11), Stanford (7-11), Boise State (6-14).

At stake: The top two teams, the winner of each event and the top two all-around finishers (not on qualifying teams) advance to the NCAA championships April 21-23 at Auburn.

Gymnasts to watch: Kristen Maloney, UCLA (2000 U.S. Olympian; No. 1 nationally in all-around); Tasha Schwikert, UCLA, (2000 U.S. Olympian); Kate Richardson, UCLA (2004 and 2000 Canadian Olympian; seventh on floor in Athens, 2004); Kristal Uzelac, Penn State (fifth nationally on bars); Kate Stopper, Penn State (co-Big Ten floor champ); Sara Burtinsky, Central Michigan; Carly Dockendorf, Washington; Tabitha Yim, Stanford.

Tickets: Reserved $9, general admission $7, youth/college students/seniors $5.

She got her start in gymnastics at age 3 and at various times in life she has tried soccer, rugby, skiing, volleyball, even wrestling. She concluded her three-year high-school wrestling career being named British Columbia's top junior-class wrestler in the 54-kilo class (119 pounds).

"I've got two brothers," she said. "That helped prepare me."

Gymnastics is great preparation for pole vaulting, she said, noting that her three elite pole-vault teammates have that background. Just two weeks after she first picked up a pole, she cleared 12 feet, 2 inches.

"When you pole vault, you just swing your body out into a handstand," she said. "It's an easy transition. It's like walking for us."

Success in gymnastics for Dockendorf would be to see the Huskies qualify for the national championships as a team.

"That's the ultimate goal," she said, "and it hasn't happened for us yet."

UW will participate in a regional meet for the 24th straight year but has not reached the championship round since 1998, when the Huskies finished seventh.

Dockendorf, ranked 18th nationally on the beam and 37th in all-around, has scored more perfect 10s (five on floor, one on bars) than any UW gymnast in history. Her goal, she said, is to advance as a team.

"This is a team sport," Dockendorf said. "We train as a team, win as a team, lose as a team. I was the only member of our team to reach nationals as an individual last year, and it really wasn't that rewarding.

"I want to do everything I can to help us get to nationals."

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/st ... 9343c.html

Vaulting to pole-vaulting

WENDY CARPENTER; The News Tribune
Published: May 12th, 2005 12:01 AM


ROD COMMONS/WSU
The UW’s Carly Dockendorf has been pole-vaulting four years.

Laughter comes easily to Carly Dockendorf.
When asked what her craziest weekend entailed, she cracked up.

“That’s easy,â€Â