JIM DAVIS article

[Bruce Caldwell]

http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/bra ... 4969c.html

Sometimes, even your best isn't quite good enough

By John Branch
The Fresno Bee

(Updated Monday, July 12, 2004, 5:10 AM)


SACRAMENTO -- The best pole vaulter at Applebee's wasn't sure what to think.


"I can't complain," said Jim Davis, his identifying red bandana still wrapped around his skull.

Well, he could complain. But he wouldn't.

He summed up the day. More than four years after setting the school record of 19 feet and one-quarter inch at vault-happy Fresno State, Davis had the second-best result of his life.


An 18-101/4. At Hornet Stadium, a notoriously difficult place to vault because of the swirling breezes. In the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, which practically could be the world championships, given how dominant the Americans have become. Davis stopped and went blank for a moment, then snapped back to the conversation, as if he was plugged back in. He shook his head.

"Oh, man," he said.

Davis finished in seventh place. Told you the Americans are good.

"Seventh place at 18-101/4. That's unheard of," Davis said.

The day's flashy event was the men's 100-meter final. But a 31/2-hour passion play at the north end of the field captivated the 22,107 people baking in the stands.

The bar kept going higher. The athletes kept going over it.

Pole-vault enthusiasts hadn't seen anything like it.

"Nope. Never. Never. Never," said Fresno State track coach Bob Fraley, the biggest enthusiast of them all, sitting in the bleachers.

Not enough nevers. He needed an exclamation point.

"Never!"

Going 18-101/4 four years ago at the trials would have captured second place.

Doing it this year gets Davis a trip back to his home in College Station, Texas, and probably a few more shifts at Applebee's, the same chain restaurant he worked at when he lived in San Diego before, and Knoxville, Tenn., before that, and in Fresno when he was a college student.

Maybe Applebee's could sponsor the poor guy, plaster a logo on his back, if Nike or Adidas won't. Of the 13 pole-vault finalists, Davis was one of two unattached to a sponsor. The other guy finished 13th.

Tim Mack made it to 19-41/4, then took three swipes at 19-93/4, which would be an American record. The other finalists lined the runway in support, clapping in unison. Everyone in the stands clapped, too, then groaned as one when each attempt failed.

Toby Stevenson finished second. Derek Miles and Tye Harvey tied for the team's third and final spot at 19-01/4. Miles won the tiebreaker; Harvey stays home.

"Goll dang it," Fraley said with a mix of excitement and disbelief. "You make it to 19 feet and you don't even make the Olympic Games! Can you believe it?"

If he can't, we can't.

Fraley recruited Davis, the best high school vaulter in 1996, from the tiny town of Godley, Texas. Afraid that Fresno's size would scare off Davis, Fraley showed him Old Town Clovis and part of the campus. That's it.

"And he drove me through all the agricultural parts of campus," Davis said. "I never saw all the other buildings."

At Fresno State, only injuries outnumbered his conference and meet titles. Two knee surgeries. A broken wrist. A horribly sprained ankle at the Western Athletic Conference meet as a junior, when he raised his arms after a successful vault, then stepped off the mat and onto a curb.

But he was patched together enough for the WAC championships his senior year, becoming Fresno State's only 19-foot vaulter. At the 2000 U.S. trials, Davis made the finals, but couldn't clear the first height. He then basically quit the sport for a year.

"I realized I don't know what I am yet," Davis said. "But I am a pole vaulter."

He regained his inspiration when he joined some vaulting friends in Tennessee. He was given a spot at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista and stayed for more than a year.

He and Ty Sevin, a javelin thrower, moved to College Station, where Davis is a volunteer assistant coach at Texas A&M between stints at Applebee's.

"I've totally rejuvenated my pole-vault technique," Davis said. "It's gone from a zero to a 10."

He woke Sunday morning hoping to reach the heights he reached. He did that. History was on his side.

In the end, he smiled. He looked like he could just as easily cry.

It was his greatest day. And his most disappointing. Strange how that works here.

"It's disappointing. It's heartbreaking. But you've gotta live with it," Davis said. "American pole vault is No. 1, and I'm glad to be a part of it."

He let out a laugh.

"Even though I was No. 7."

The columnist can be reached at jbranch@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6217.