PoleVaultPower.com

Huh?

http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=96066

At that time, FieldTurf will also be installed on the infield and the warning track at Tointon Family Stadium, the home of K-State baseball. Additionally, a FieldTurf pole vault runway and a putting green will also in installed for use by the Wildcats.

Weird. Theres an indoor track around where I live, University of Rochester's, which is a bit older. The track sucks and the infield is turf, which I really didn't mind for vaulting.

The fact that there was a tunnel on the second turn sucks though for races, as major clipping occurs...

I actually kinda like vaulting on indoor turf. I'm not sure why. I also like that one of the football lines ran right into the box, so it helped me to run straighter.

Regular turf is not so bad for a practice runway, but actual field turf would be quite messy.

I think the article probably got some of the details wrong, I highly doubt they are actually putting in a field turf runway

Speaking as a veteran of the indoor track at the University of Rochester (Penfield HS '88 - had all our indoor meets there) that field turf was actually kinda nice to vault on. The biggest problem was the walkway above - if you had a run longer than 12 strides you had to hold your pole nearly horizontal or you'd bonk the walkway above.

As for that tunnel on turn two - I could tell you some wild stories. They never used to have officials in there and some brutal stuff happened...

like dirty tricks from the guy in second place? sounds half hilarious, half really unfair

I actually had the chance to see a turf runway this past weekend at Bucknell University. Normally they have two pits w/ normal runways at the end of the track near the finish line. They changed it a little bit this year due to problems with wind direction. A vaulting box was installed facing the turf field and the day of competition a plywood base with a roll-out runway was used as the competition runway for Saturday's meet. It actually worked much better than I thought it would. The surface was low impact, fast, and the plant step was off the turf so it was a solid plant. The wind factor was easily overcome as well... complete tailwind for the entire competition.

Congrats to Melanie Buczko for qualifying for DI regionals and Kevin Clark for setting a new facility record and clearing DIII auto on the intriguing surface.