Kelly Schulz Article
Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:40 pm
http://dellspaper.scwn.com/articles/200 ... orts01.txt
Schulz vaults to top 10 finish.
It has been an exciting and successful season, but Schulz was glad to get back home on Sunday. Jim den Hollander/Dells Events
Local athlete caps amazing freshman year at Texas Tech with a top 10 showing at NCAA championships
By Jim den Hollander/Events Sports
When she left Wisconsin Dells for Texas Tech last fall, Kelley Schulz, a 2003 WDHS grad, hoped to take her pole vaulting career to a new level.
She returned home Sunday night for a well deserved summer break having exceeded even the highest expectations of her coach and herself.
Schulz wrapped up an extremely busy and satisfying first year in Texas as the top female vaulter at her school and finished 10th overall in the nation at the Division I NCAA Track and Field championships held at Austin, Texas.
Schulz would have bettered her own personal best yet another time to stay alive when she was eliminated from the meet.
Having cleared four meters on her second attempt, Schulz missed at 4.10m (13'5.25") and wound up in 10th spot overall. Her personal record in the event is 4.05m which converts to 13'3.75".
Not bad for somebody who set a pre-season goal of getting to 12'3" this season.
The winning vault at the NCAA event was a 4.30m leap (14'1.25") by UCLA's Chelsea Johnson, a sophomore who matched her father, a one-time national champion and Olympian in the same event.
Schulz was second ranked among freshman at the meet, while Jenny Green of Nebraska, a Big 12 rival and now a close friend, placed third overall in the event with a 13'9.25" leap for the top freshman finish.
Texas endured much of the same weather conditions as Wisconsin last week and as a result, it was difficult to get much of the meet in.
"The first day we jumped was Wednesday," said Schulz. "That was when Prelims were. How Prelims go is, you jump until there's 12 to 16 girls left, then you stop and those girls move on to the finals.
"As we started warming up, it was cloudy and everything, but it wasn't raining yet. It started raining during warm-ups, then it stopped.
"Then we got the competition going and about half of the girls jumped. There was 14 that made the height and two that no-heighted, because it was raining.
"Then, it just started to downpour, but they were still trying to wait and see if we could keep going.
"Then one girl went and vaulted and, as she hit the box, her hands just slid all of the way down the pole and the pole smacked her in the face. So that was when they decided to stop."
As a result of the delay, all 28 girls returned to event two days later on a nice cool evening with just a slight breeze - perfect vaulting weather.
Schulz, who missed, then made the opening height in a light rain two days earlier, said she felt much better then.
"I was kind of struggling at prelims," admitted Schulz. "My first attempt, I missed. My plant was off and everything like that and I hit the pole with my foot. I just wasn't 100 percent.
"But then, when we came back for finals, after resting those two days and not doing anything, I felt like 100 percent and it was so much better."
Along with the weather and fatigue two days earlier, Schulz was dealing with a rare injury as well.
"My hamstring was hurting at prelims...it was kind of pulled," said Schulz adding she had no idea what caused the problem - she simply woke up with it in the days before the NCAA meet. The team's trainer helped out by "popping the lower left side of my back," said Schulz.
"Schulz cleared the opening height at 3.75m on her first attempt and needed only one jump at 3.90m as well.
At four meters, Schulz missed her first attempt, but cleared it on her second of three tries and was still alive with exactly half (14) of the field eliminated.
Entering the event ranked 16th in the nation, Schulz had already moved up.
She missed all three attempts at 4.10, one of six girls to go out at the height, she ranked second among the group based on misses at earlier attempts.
Schulz said afterward she felt like a little improvement in style would have helped her clear that height and jump into the top nine in the nation.
"I was over, I was way over, but I was coming down on (the bar)," said Schulz.
The WDHS and South Central Conference record holder, Schulz said coming down on the bar is caused by the plant of the pole.
"My arm was bent. I need to work next year on really getting it straight," said Schulz. "It kind of stops you from getting into the pit."
Schulz obviously couldn't have been happier with the way the season went, but at the same time, she is happy to get a much needed break at this point.
"It's nice to be done - it is...but now I kind of feel like, what do I do now," joked Schulz adding "because it is all I have been doing."
Schulz has one more commitment to the coach, at a vaulting clinic he is putting on in Chicago this weekend. After that, she won't pick up a pole until mid-August. However, she will be receiving a summer workout package from the coach at this weekend's clinic as he expects the vaulters to be in shape for what Schulz said will likely be an intense and rigorous start to the 2004-05 school year.
If she makes the progressive leaps in her next three years at Texas Tech that she did in her Freshman year, Schulz will graduate in three years as one of the top vaulters in the country.
The past season was amazing and shocking to everyone, including Schulz.
"Yeah, it shocked me too," said Schulz. "I don't really even know how to explain it. It's just as the weeks went by, things started clicking more and more. I got stronger and got on bigger poles and I just kept on going higher."
Schulz vaults to top 10 finish.
It has been an exciting and successful season, but Schulz was glad to get back home on Sunday. Jim den Hollander/Dells Events
Local athlete caps amazing freshman year at Texas Tech with a top 10 showing at NCAA championships
By Jim den Hollander/Events Sports
When she left Wisconsin Dells for Texas Tech last fall, Kelley Schulz, a 2003 WDHS grad, hoped to take her pole vaulting career to a new level.
She returned home Sunday night for a well deserved summer break having exceeded even the highest expectations of her coach and herself.
Schulz wrapped up an extremely busy and satisfying first year in Texas as the top female vaulter at her school and finished 10th overall in the nation at the Division I NCAA Track and Field championships held at Austin, Texas.
Schulz would have bettered her own personal best yet another time to stay alive when she was eliminated from the meet.
Having cleared four meters on her second attempt, Schulz missed at 4.10m (13'5.25") and wound up in 10th spot overall. Her personal record in the event is 4.05m which converts to 13'3.75".
Not bad for somebody who set a pre-season goal of getting to 12'3" this season.
The winning vault at the NCAA event was a 4.30m leap (14'1.25") by UCLA's Chelsea Johnson, a sophomore who matched her father, a one-time national champion and Olympian in the same event.
Schulz was second ranked among freshman at the meet, while Jenny Green of Nebraska, a Big 12 rival and now a close friend, placed third overall in the event with a 13'9.25" leap for the top freshman finish.
Texas endured much of the same weather conditions as Wisconsin last week and as a result, it was difficult to get much of the meet in.
"The first day we jumped was Wednesday," said Schulz. "That was when Prelims were. How Prelims go is, you jump until there's 12 to 16 girls left, then you stop and those girls move on to the finals.
"As we started warming up, it was cloudy and everything, but it wasn't raining yet. It started raining during warm-ups, then it stopped.
"Then we got the competition going and about half of the girls jumped. There was 14 that made the height and two that no-heighted, because it was raining.
"Then, it just started to downpour, but they were still trying to wait and see if we could keep going.
"Then one girl went and vaulted and, as she hit the box, her hands just slid all of the way down the pole and the pole smacked her in the face. So that was when they decided to stop."
As a result of the delay, all 28 girls returned to event two days later on a nice cool evening with just a slight breeze - perfect vaulting weather.
Schulz, who missed, then made the opening height in a light rain two days earlier, said she felt much better then.
"I was kind of struggling at prelims," admitted Schulz. "My first attempt, I missed. My plant was off and everything like that and I hit the pole with my foot. I just wasn't 100 percent.
"But then, when we came back for finals, after resting those two days and not doing anything, I felt like 100 percent and it was so much better."
Along with the weather and fatigue two days earlier, Schulz was dealing with a rare injury as well.
"My hamstring was hurting at prelims...it was kind of pulled," said Schulz adding she had no idea what caused the problem - she simply woke up with it in the days before the NCAA meet. The team's trainer helped out by "popping the lower left side of my back," said Schulz.
"Schulz cleared the opening height at 3.75m on her first attempt and needed only one jump at 3.90m as well.
At four meters, Schulz missed her first attempt, but cleared it on her second of three tries and was still alive with exactly half (14) of the field eliminated.
Entering the event ranked 16th in the nation, Schulz had already moved up.
She missed all three attempts at 4.10, one of six girls to go out at the height, she ranked second among the group based on misses at earlier attempts.
Schulz said afterward she felt like a little improvement in style would have helped her clear that height and jump into the top nine in the nation.
"I was over, I was way over, but I was coming down on (the bar)," said Schulz.
The WDHS and South Central Conference record holder, Schulz said coming down on the bar is caused by the plant of the pole.
"My arm was bent. I need to work next year on really getting it straight," said Schulz. "It kind of stops you from getting into the pit."
Schulz obviously couldn't have been happier with the way the season went, but at the same time, she is happy to get a much needed break at this point.
"It's nice to be done - it is...but now I kind of feel like, what do I do now," joked Schulz adding "because it is all I have been doing."
Schulz has one more commitment to the coach, at a vaulting clinic he is putting on in Chicago this weekend. After that, she won't pick up a pole until mid-August. However, she will be receiving a summer workout package from the coach at this weekend's clinic as he expects the vaulters to be in shape for what Schulz said will likely be an intense and rigorous start to the 2004-05 school year.
If she makes the progressive leaps in her next three years at Texas Tech that she did in her Freshman year, Schulz will graduate in three years as one of the top vaulters in the country.
The past season was amazing and shocking to everyone, including Schulz.
"Yeah, it shocked me too," said Schulz. "I don't really even know how to explain it. It's just as the weeks went by, things started clicking more and more. I got stronger and got on bigger poles and I just kept on going higher."