Kristen Bakanowski Article

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/sport ... leid=89698

Making the leap: Bakanowski raises the bar at UMass
By Albert Breer
Friday, February 4, 2005

Kristen Bakanowski blends her undeniable athleticism with a fierce competitive streak that may even outweigh her natural ability.

Or at least, that's what it seemed to UMass women's track and field coach Julie Lafreniere when the Minutewomen were at Boston University for a quad meet recently.

It was the second competition of the burgeoning star's collegiate career. In her debut, she won the pole vault and finished third in the 200 at the Boston Six-Way, a warm-up meet on Dec. 6.



The Algonquin grad expected to compete in both events at BU. Lafreniere didn't see it that way.

Bakanowski was getting ready for the pole vault finals and looked over to see the 200 getting ready to start. It wasn't a mistake. The coach didn't have her running in the sprint.

"She was insulted that I didn't enter her," says Lafreniere. "I had to explain it to her. Yeah, the 200 was going on, but she was going for 12 feet in the pole vault."

Truth is, Lafreniere knows how good a runner Bakanowski is and knows how good she could grow to be in the short distances. The problem is that the freshman is better in the pole vault. Much better.

So good, in fact, that Lafreniere gave her a full scholarship -- in a sport where partials are more the norm -- to vault for UMass. So good that at that BU meet, her final score of 12 feet tied a school record. So good that the record-matching vault isn't even a personal best.

Don't misread this, Bakanowski is versatile athlete, good enough that Lafreniere says she would have offered her a partial scholarship just to sprint. It's just that, well, the pole vault is her meal ticket. Not to mention her passion.

"She's a very competitive individual," says Lafreniere. "She has a combination of a passion for the event and that competitiveness. She wants to be the best, she wants to go higher and higher. Her enthusiasm is clear."

Now, the pole vault is still not all that widespread on the female side of the track. And Bakanowski got into it almost by accident.

When she entered Algonquin Regional 4 1/2 years ago, Bakanowski was strictly a soccer player. She went out for track because, for one, she knew she was fast and, for two, because it didn't interfere with her work on the pitch.

Her high school coach, Ken Peterson, was also a pole vault coach. He introduced Bakanowski to the event -- maybe the most difficult of all in track and field -- and the freshman decided to give it a shot.

"It had a combination of everything," she says. "You have to run, you have to be strong. And I've always loved heights."

Of course, she wasn't reaching very high ones right away. It was a struggle at first. She had the tools, but the technique took time.

Then, returns started coming back. A league all-star all in eight track seasons in high school, Bakanowski's progress in the vault started to sprint right by what she was doing in the 200 and 300 meters. And this, even though she was good enough to eventually be the CMass champion in the 200 and set the Class C state record in the 300.

"Before my junior year in high school, I started training at Brandeis," she says, "and I started working at pole vaulting camps. That's what really got me to be really good at it."

She gave up soccer and met vaulting guru Jeff Robbins, whom she still gets coaching from, of Airtime Athletics. Under his tutelage, she won the New England title in the event in both 2003 and 2004.

And subsequently, got that full scholarship.

The coaches at UMass can be given credit for getting Bakanowski. But they aren't going to take any for what she's doing right now. That's because what the freshman knows comes from her previous training and, to this point, the UMass coaching staff hasn't gotten all the way through to its prodigy.

It's a delicate thing, really, in a perilous competition like the pole vault. Any doubt can cause a serious injury, so trust is vital.

"(UMass vault coach and men's head coach Ken O'Brien) really knows what he's talking about, he's a good coach," says Bakanowski. "But vaulting is so dangerous that if I don't trust what he's telling me, I'll run right into the mats.

"I haven't had the time to really build it, so I don't quite trust what they're saying yet," she continues. "When the trust builds, I'll be able to really improve."

She still works out a day a week with Robbins and when she's able to take coaching from both ends, Lafreniere thinks, Bakanowski will take off.

And really, she's already not far off from being a world class competitor. Her PR is less than two feet from the Olympic-qualifying height of 14 feet and less than four from the world record of 16 feet.

Bakanowski admits that she's dreamed of being in Beijing for the 2008 Games or at the 2012 Olympiad, wherever it might be held. But it's also more than that.

"Actually," she says, "I think it's doable."

So maybe, she can look back at that meet at BU and understand Lafreniere's thinking a little better. The coach never denied that Bakanowski can be a good Division I sprinter.

All she was saying, really, was that her focus should be elsewhere. On not goodness, but greatness. And Bakanowski, pole in hand, might just agree.

[OUvaulterUSAF]

I would have to say Kristen is one of the most dedicated athletes I have ever met--her potential is off the charts.

Oh and I think it was her hardworking attitude that got her a full ride.

[VaultBrad]

ive jumped with kristen two or three times. she is definately a great athlete.