Ellie Rudy learns to vault under any circumstances

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Rudy learns to vault under any circumstances

By JIM CNOCKAERT Chronicle Sports Writer

Ellie Rudy has been fighting a cold, but that's just the latest in what has been a long line of health issues. She'd been sick for a while in the fall. Then, just when she started to feel better, her hip started to hurt. After that stopped aching, she got sick again.


CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO Montana State junior Ellie Rudy will look to defend her NCAA indoor pole vault championship this winter, but she will then focus on preparing for the U.S. Olympic Trials. "Hopefully, I'm at the end of being sick and hurt," Rudy said this week. "I figuring that if I'm sick now, maybe I won't be sick later."

Which, if it works out that way, would be a fine thing for Rudy, Montana State's junior pole vaulter. She has lofty goals for the 2008 track & field season, and she figures she'll need to be at the top of her game to accomplish them.

The indoor portion of that season starts Friday with the MSU Open in Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. Field events begin at 4:30 p.m.; running prelims start at 5:30.

Right at the top of her list is defending the NCAA indoor pole vault championship she won a year ago.

"That's a huge deal for me," she said.

But running that a very close second is preparing physically and mentally to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Rudy said she hopes to clear 14 feet, 8 inches during the indoor season, because that is the "A" standard for the Trials. She plans to redshirt during the outdoor season, though she will continue to compete unattached. Her goal during the spring is to clear 15-1 or better.

"A lot of what I am doing this year is geared to that," Rudy said about preparing for the Trials. "That would be amazing for me, for all of us, for Montana State, if I did make it to the Olympics. It's definitely part of my focus. But I also want to do well during the college season."

Rudy burst onto the national track & field scene in early March, when she won a jump-off against Florida's Natalie Moser and Kansas' Kate Sultanova to earn the pole vault championship at the NCAA indoor championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

It was the first NCAA track & field title won by an MSU woman and the second by an MSU athlete. Shannon Butler won men's distance titles in 1990 and 1991.

In the spring, Rudy set MSU and Big Sky records by clearing 14 feet, 2.5 inches - the third-highest mark in NCAA Division I last season. She earned her fifth straight Big Sky pole vault title, finishing third in the NCAA Midwest Region and fourth at the NCAA Championships.

Rudy said she was exhausted by the end of the outdoor season, adding she believes that hurt her chances at the national outdoor meet.

"If I started feeling really tired, I started to give up a lot faster, like anyone probably would," she said. "In the back of your mind, you're thinking, 'If I just miss this last jump, I can go home to take a nap.' You have to convince yourself not to do that."

Rudy said she believes that is the most important lesson she took out of her experience last season, and it is one she believes will help her as she approaches the Trials.

"I've jumped when I'm sick, and I've jumped when I'm tired," she said. "I know now that I can jump, no matter what is happening to me. Even if I'm sick and feeling horrible, I can still jump - and jump well. I think I am more prepared to jump this year, no matter what the conditions. If I had known then what I know now, I think I would have done better.

"But I have no regrets. I had to go through it. That's how it is for everything. You can't skip steps."

It's that sort of mentality that MSU track & field coach Dale Kennedy hopes rubs on on each of his athletes. Success isn't just about winning championships, he said, it's about improving in every practice and every meet. Rudy embodies that philosophy, he said.

"For her, it's not just winning a national title. It's going higher," he said.

"It's really great to have her here, because of how she ramps it up. There's no doubt that everyone is lifted up by her performance. But it's not just that. It's Ellie the person. She is really a charismatic kid with a lot of energy. Kids get excited when they are around her. She just lifts people up."

Rudy said she hopes she can lift herself up enough this season to make it back to the NCAA winner's circle - and hopefully to a spot on the U.S. track & field team.

"After I won the nationals last year, (MSU assistant coach) Tom (Eitel) told me to eat it up while I can, because it doesn't happen twice to most people," she said. "Just because it's happened once doesn't mean it's going to happen again.

"But it's anyone's game. Anyone who's on their game that day can have it (the championship). I don't want anyone to take it from me. I will do my super best to make sure that doesn't happen."