Mastering rings helps Western Illinois pole vaulters

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Mastering rings helps pole vaulters clear the bar
Genie Kiran

Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: Sports
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Media Credit: Adam Sacasa
Freshman Nichole Manning clears the bar at January's Iowa Open.

Most would think gymnastics and track and field have nothing in common. For Western Illinois pole vaulters, the two sports intertwine at practice every day.

"We have high bar, we have the rings (and) the rope," said coach Mike Stevenson. "They do all kinds of gymnastic-related activities that apply to contorting their bodies because they have to turn upside-down in the air and do weird things like that."

In addition to gymnastic training methods and practicing to clear the bar, the Leatherneck and Westerwind pole vaulters run with their sprinter teammates to gain the necessary speed on the runway and also lift weights.

"They lift weights like madmen because pole vaulters tend to need to be pretty strong," Stevenson said.

The key to a good pole vaulter is similar to that of a sprinter: rest. Besides that, pole vaulters need consistent technique, but safety is also a big factor.

"You can't pole vault every day," Stevenson said. "You can only vault two times a week and then once on the weekend for a track meet.

"They have to make sure they're doing things exactly right," he added. "There are a lot of reasons why technique is important when it comes to safety. No. 1, people can die from pole vaulting. You have to be careful and do things correctly so you don't run into problems like that. And then along with safety, it's also making sure that their technique allows them to clear higher bars."

Consistent technique is freshman Nichole Manning's recent achievement - in her last few meets, her pole vaulting has greatly improved.

At Purdue, Manning vaulted 10'11.75" (3.35m). At the UNI Invitational, she vaulted 11'03.75" (3.45m), not only tying for second place but also tying her personal best.

"One of the biggest things that is helping her right now to improve is just more and more practice," Stevenson said. "As an athlete, she has become stronger and faster, which are both very big components of pole vaulting, and she's also maturing."

Junior vaulter Faith Chew placed first in last year's UNI Invite and, according to Stevenson, has been focusing on consistency.

"(Chew's) biggest things right now are that she is very strong physically and very fast, so those are things that have helped her the most," Stevenson said. "She's still a little inconsistent, so she hasn't really had steady meets, but after a bad meet, she'll come back and have a really good meet the next time. So once she develops her technique, she can continue to improve.

"But she's one of the strongest and fastest girls we have on the team so that helps us a lot," he added.

Senior Kate Pickford, the leading female vaulter of the team, has been redshirting at the indoor meets but will participate in the outdoor season for the team in the spring.

"She doesn't have indoor eligibility, so she won't be vaulting for the team until outdoor," Stevenson said. "She's been doing well. We're fighting with some little injury problems with her, but she was a regional qualifier the year before last.

"She does a good job," he added. "She's a great leader, and she has a lot of skill that she brings to the event."

For the men's team, freshman Andrew Ryan has also been improving since Purdue, when he vaulted 15'07.00" (4.75m), to the University of Wisconsin meet, vaulting 16'01.25" (4.91m), placing seventh and breaking his indoor record.

"In Andy's case especially, it's become a question of time for him because he played soccer all fall so he didn't do any fall training with us," Stevenson said. "So for him, it's just a question of getting into a rhythm and remembering how to vault correctly and working on the things he has to do so each time he just gets a little better."

Overall, the vaulters have been improving with the techniques and training throughout the cold winter season.

"The vaulters overall are something that we feel very comfortable with in our conference that we can kind of dominate the field," Stevenson said. "If things go well, we could put all of our kids in the finals of the vault competition for conference. That is a big deal for us because conference is pretty tough."

The indoor track and field teams' next competition is Friday at the Meyo Invitational on the campus of Notre Dame.