Royals have 2 quality pole-vaulters (IN)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... 7/SPORTS02

Royals have 2 quality pole-vaulters
Paige Neata, Jackie Lauer give Hamilton Southeastern an edge in event that hasn't been around for girls all that long
By Paul Shepherd / Star correspondent
Posted: April 4, 2008

Pole vaulting wasn't an event girls competed in when Julie Alano attended high school. In fact, the event wasn't contested at the state meet until 2003 and wasn't scored until 2005.
Now the Hamilton Southeastern coach admits it's almost become an afterthought that nearly every school has a quality vaulter.


The Royals have two established bar jumpers: senior Paige Neata and junior Jackie Lauer.
Neata was a state qualifier and the sectional runner-up at Noblesville. Lauer took third in the sectional and fifth in the regional, one spot short of qualifying for state.
Lauer tied her season best from last year with a 10-foot jump at the March 22 Hoosier State Relays at Indiana University to place fifth at the unofficial indoor state meet.
"She's done real well," Alano said. "To already have done that indoors, that's just huge to kind of start out where she ended last year. She's pretty excited she's already gone 10 feet this season."
Alano anticipated trying Lauer's younger sister MacKenzie in the event in the meet this week against Fishers. The meet was postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday.
"I don't even remember when it wasn't an event," Alano said. "I think there's a ton of girls out there that benefit from it. We go looking for the girls to do it, mainly cheerleaders and gymnasts, and a lot of them have gotten good at it."