PoleVaultPower.com

On Sat August 22nd Vault High Athletics will be Sponsoring the 2009 Ypsilanti Heritage Festival pole vault. The event will start at 10am and is open to Beginners
College,High School, Masters, and open men and women pole vaulters. The event is USATF sanctioned there will be music a Raffle for a UCS Spirit pole, medals for First, secound and third and alot of food and fun!!! To register go to www.polevaultcamps.com or call Paul Babits at 260-637-8209

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Attention all pole vaulters, its still not to late to sign up for the Ypsilanti Heritage festival!!!! Be a part of all the pole vaulting, music and fun!!!!! Awards, UCS pole raffle and pole vaulting galore!!! Sign up now at www.polevaultcamps.com or call Paul Babits at 260-637-8209

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Leaping vaulters come to Frog Island
ShareThis By Josh Curmi
Aug. 21, 2009 · 9:08 a.m.

Pole-vaulters of all ages and skill levels will have the opportunity to showcase their skills Saturday at the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival.

The local community and many elite pole-vaulters from the Midwest will be competing in the United States Track and Field Federation sanctioned event. This being a sanctioned event, any world records or performances will be accepted.

Event Coordinator and participant Paul Babits is looking forward to bringing this event to Michigan and the Heritage Festival.

“I am from Michigan and have always wanted to bring it back,” Babits said “The Heritage Festival has been fantastic and we are really excited about it being here.”

Babits also said spectators love watching the participants fly through the air and it’s a great event for kids.

“It’s like a circus event,” he said, laughing. “People watch and wonder how they get so high and want to try it themselves.”

Heritage Festival co-coordinator Kathy Bennet also anticipates a great atmosphere for the competition.

“I have talked to a lot of people and pole-vaulting sparked a real interest, it surprised me,” Bennet said. “I am excited to bring something that everyone is looking forward to.

“We anticipate a great crowd,” she said.

The event will start at 10 a.m., with beginners from ages 12 - 72 with the height starting at 6 foot, 6 inches.”

At 1 p.m., the elite men will jump, followed by the elite women at 3 p.m. These groups are both consisted of former and current national champions.

The high school boys and girls competition will be from 5 - 9 p.m.

There is a $45 fee to compete in the event due to insurance, sanction, and set-up fees.

Those who help set up for the competition may have their fee waived. For more information or any questions e-mail Paul Babits at polevaultcamps@comcast.net.

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Open Letter to the Anti-Pole-Vaulting-At-Heritage-Fest Contingent
The grapevine says that some history-minded folk in town are raising eyebrows, and questions, concerning this year's Pole Vaulting exhibition. "Pole Vaulting?" they whisper. "What in the Sam Hill does that have to do with Ypsilanti Heritage?"

Dusty D chuckles indulgently as she reaches for her copy of Harvey Colburn's book The Story of Ypsilanti. Little do these well-meaning nay-sayers know that this sport was a part of our urban fabric when that fabric was still just a single thread--and that shining blue thread is the Huron River. Open your books, please, to page 51:

"Jonathan G. Morton, Ypsilanti's first store-keeper, had visited Woodruff's Grove in August, 1824, he being at that time twenty-two years of age. Morton was a native of Massachusetts. At the age of seventeen he had procured a horse and wagon and a stock of "Yankee notions" and, before coming to Ypsilanti, had peddled the country from New England to Ohio. Visiting Detroit, he determined to explore the country and set out on foot along the Indian trail. Arriving at the Grove, he was favorably impressed by the new settlement and determined to open a business. Returning East, he bought a stock of dry-goods and shipped it to Detroit. The following spring he had his merchandise poled up the river in a small boat."

Many others did the same, in an era when the forest between Detroit and Ypsi was well-nigh impassable to wagons. Now, ask yourself. Once you've poled your boat all the way up the river, what's the quickest, easiest way to get ashore? In lieu of wading through the leeches and slimy rocks and moray eels. Of course! You'd use all that upper body strength you'd built up on the Huron and with a quick graceful movement, simply pole vault to shore, yessir. The historicity of this activity is now documented thanks to me. So let's not have any more of this quibbling and sniveling--join Dusty D in embracing this historical event as the modern-day analog of an activity from our earliest history.

Here are the results from the Ypsilanti, MI Heritage Festival Vault Comp. http://www.polevaultcamps.com/id31.html. Next year there will probably be prize money! The set up was very nice and ran well. This meet ran the elite competition first which was very nice.