Morgan Zacharias wins Girls Title on 12-6 Vault

By Michael Newman

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Rolling Meadows, Ill --- You always hope when you go to a track and field meet that you see something special happen at that event. The spectator at the meet will see something special happen like an athlete setting a personal best or perhaps a meet record.

The people that ventured to the Rolling Meadows High School Fieldhouse for the Windy City Pole Vault Summit late Saturday afternoon were in for a special treat. Luke Winder (Central HS, Plainfield) was coming off of a performance in February where he cleared 17- ¾ at a meet in Wisconsin. There were the hopes of the people that were waiting for the competition to begin that something special would happen in this event.

If you have ever been to the Windy City Pole Vault Summit, it is a special treat to watch even if you are not familiar with the Pole Vault. There are two pits that are running events simultaneously. One runway for the Girls. One runway for the Boys. Music is playing in the background ramping up the enthusiasm in the building.

Both the Boys and Girls Events produced great performances. The topper was a new state record in the Boys Pole Vault.

Boys Event – In the middle of the week, Jack Denby (Carlinville HS) notified meet director Frank Schweda of Rolling Meadows High School that he would not be coming to the Pole Vault Summit instead concentrating his efforts on the Jacksonville High School Invitational on the campus of Illinois College. On Friday, he changed his mind. The Denby family told Schweida that they would try to make it to the Summit after he completed the Jacksonville meet.

Denby won the 1A Jacksonville meet clearing 16-0. He walked in the door of Rolling Meadows High School a little after 5:30 PM. They made the close to 240 mile trip in ??? Sorry, I will not tell you what time the Denby’s left Jacksonville. Suffice to say, well, I’ll let you figure out how fast they were going.

He smiled as he entered the Fieldhouse. “I cleared 16-0 at Jacksonville,” Denby said as he prepared for the event, “but I did not like the runway. That’s why I am here.”

On the other side of the field house, there was Winder warming up in a high level of concentration. It did not matter who else was in this competition. Winder was focused on what he needed to do.

When Denby arrived, the majority of the athletes in the Boys event were out of the competition. The only athletes that were left were Riley Smith (Westerfield HS, Casey) who had just cleared 15-0 and Winder who had not entered the event yet.

Denby entered at 15-3. His first vault showed the rust that he had from his trip up north. Also factored into that was that Jack had taken 8 attempts earlier in the day at Jacksonville. He shrugged off the first attempt at that height and cleared on his second try. Smith on his eleventh attempt of the competition and the third at the 15-3 height cleared. The bar was raised to 15-6. Winder started taking off his sweats.

The game of chess began between Winder and Denby. The Carlinville athlete passed at the 15-6 height. Winder stormed down the runway for his first attempt of the event and cleared the height fairly comfortably. Smith followed up clearing the height. It was a seasonal best for Smith.

Another three inches the bar went up. Winder did not realize that they were raising the bar in three inch increments. To save his efforts, he passed at 15-9. It was time for the 1A vaulters to face each other. Smith made three great attempts at 15-9, but the fifteen attempts was starting to wear on him. He finished in third.

Denby was having trouble with the 15-9 height. His first two attempts were good ones, but he kept brushing the bar as he went across. It would be a shame for Denby to go out at this low height in his eyes. He pumped himself up and ran down the runway. He popped it clearing the height.

Two athletes left. The bar goes to 16-0. It was Denby’s turn to pass the height. Winder’s first attempt was a miss as he nipped the bar going up. He quickly returned to the end of the runway and tried again. This time he cleared by close to a foot. It showed that he had more left in him.

16-3: Winder passes. Again, Denby was living on the edge as he missed his first two attempts. His third attempt he just cleared the bar. It was his second highest vault ever behind the 16-4 ¾ he cleared a few weeks ago at the University of Missouri.

The playing around was over between the two athletes. Both passed at 16-6 and decided to go for 16-9, which would have establish a new event record. Winder went first charging down the runway. He hit the box and flew in the air. He had plenty of room in clearing that height. It was his third best clearance ever. The make on the first attempt put pressure on Denby.

Earlier in the day at Jacksonville, Denby made three attempts at 16-6. Three inches higher would be a different animal. His first two attempts he ended up riding his pole when it hit the box. It is not encouraging when you get to that height. Maybe it was the number of attempts in competition he had taken during the day which was now at eighteen. His nineteenth attempt was a good one. He just nipped the bar as he went over. His long day was over. Not too many athletes can say that they went over 16-0 in the Pole Vault in two different meets on the same day.

It was now just Winder against the bar at the end of the runway. Come to think of it, wasn’t it that way during the competition? He had the bar raised to 17-2 ½. At the meet in Wisconsin, after he cleared 17- ¾ he had the bar raised to that height. He missed at that height. It was not about the making the height on that day but the process you go through to get to that point. It prepared him for what he was about to do.

He stood at the end of the runway waiting to make his first attempt. His father was standing on the side of the runway close to his son. He yelled out “Winder up.” He was the only athlete left yet he was up. It was just something to make what Luke was doing just another vault. In his mind, that is what it was.

His approach seemed flawless but he hit the bar as he tried to clear it. It was a good attempt. It was good enough to think that the clearance of that height was coming.

Winder went back and sat down. One of his brothers came over to give him a word of encouragement. Winder picked up his pole and got himself ready to make another run down that path towards the pit.

“Winder up.”

He stared at the pit for a minute. Like a controlled bull, he charged down the runway.

His pole hit the box. He went up in the air veering towards the right. Over he went. The bar stayed on the standards.

At first, Winder did not know what to do. He bounced off the pit up in the air. The helmet that he was wearing was flung off bouncing down the runway that he had just traveled on. He found family members and embraced them. The state record was his.

The bar was raised to 17-6 ¾. Three good attempts. Three misses. Maybe not misses but preparation for what he needed to do next. It’s all about the process from getting from point A to point B.

“This summer, I tried out some new 16 foot polls and it seems like I got a hang of them finally. I felt that the strength training that I did this summer and all of the sprinting I did and all the work that I did made me able to do what I did today,” Winder said. “Half way through the vault, you don’t know if you have it, but you have a good feeling. I had that good feeling. I extended and turned off the top of it. I just looked and saw the bar beneath me. I just knew there right after that.”

Girls Event – There was a little uncertainty as the heights started to get higher and the competitors started to dwindle down. There were four athletes left after they cleared 12-0. Morgan Zacharias (Reed-Custer HS, Braidwood), Cassadee Ifft (Prairie Central HS, Fairbury), Hannah Swift (Pekin HS), and Brooke Catherine (Normal Community HS) all looked good in clearing that height.

All four missed on their first attempt at 12-3. It was Morgan Zacharias that made it over the bar at 12-3 first. It was a personal best for her by three inches. Ifft and Swift missed on their second attempt. Catherine made it up the runway for her second attempt. She brushed the bar as she went over. She laid on the left edge of the pit in disbelief as emotions engulfed her. Ifft and Swift both had good third attempts at the height but were not successful.

Zacharias put the pressure on Catherine by clearing 12-6 on her second attempt. Catherine, who followed Zacharias in the vault rotation, did not have best attempt at her second try at 12-6. To stay in the competition, she would need to clear that height.

All attention in the Fieldhouse was on the orange clad vaulter from Normal since there was a pause in the Boys Meet. She received encouragement from her coach. She was alone on an island were her thoughts on how to clear that height in front of her. Her plant was good as the pole hit the box. She just cleared the bar. It was a new PR for her. Friends surrounded her as she was trying to believe what had just happened.

Both Zacharias and Catherine had set personal bests at the 12-6 height. The bar was raised to 12-9. Three good attempts but unsuccessful. Zacharias had fewer misses during the competition thus giving her the win.

“I felt like I was flying in the air,” Zacharais said about her 12-6 clearance. “I got upside down and I took off. It was fun.”