Healthy Skipper aims high

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Track and field notebook Healthy Skipper aims high
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
KEN GOE
The Oregonian Staff
Tommy Skipper has lofty goals, which explains why he was disappointed with his season-opening performance last week at the USA vs. the World indoor track meet at Fresno State.

Skipper won the pole vault by clearing 18 feet, 33/4 inches, but the former University of Oregon vaulter had hoped to go higher.

"I was trying to execute some things we've been working on in practice," Skipper said by phone from Isleton, Calif., near Sacramento.

Skipper moved there last spring to train with a group put together by Dan Pfaff, a former coach at Florida and Texas.

"Things I needed to accomplish, I did," Skipper said. "But it would have been nice to jump a little higher. I had a goal of going 18-8 in the first meet."

Skipper and 2006 U.S. outdoor champion Russ Buller cleared the same height, but Skipper had fewer misses. Now Skipper has refocused on the Millrose Games, Friday in New York.

"I hope to put some things together there," he said.

It could happen, because Skipper is healthy now after a partly torn left calf muscle cost him much of the 2007 outdoor season. He didn't compete for the Ducks until the Pacific-10 Conference championships, and he didn't vault at Hayward Field until the NCAA West Regionals two weeks later.

Even then, Skipper wasn't healthy. But that didn't stop him from setting the Pac-10 outdoor record with a winning vault of 19-1/4.

It was a dramatic way to say goodbye to the Hayward faithful. Skipper followed up by successfully defending his NCAA outdoor championship in Sacramento. By then, he had picked Pfaff to guide his fledgling professional career.

"I'm happier than I've ever been as far as training and being comfortable down here in California," Skipper said. "Dan Pfaff is very well-known and respected. He has a brilliant mind. I can't say anything bad about it."