Menu
Bison vaulters find success at state track meet
OMAHA, Neb. -- McCook High School pole vault coach Bill Ramsay might have a little leverage for a bonus.
Ramsay's vaulters each recorded school record marks and brought home medals from the 2013 Nebraska State High School Track and Field Championships last weekend in Omaha.
Senior Kyle Stewart won the Class B boys pole vault with a career-best mark of 15 feet, 4 inches. Stewart broke the old Bison school record of 15 feet even set by Kyle Craw at the 2011 Class B state meet.
Abi Mohr, a junior, came so close to winning the Class B girls pole vault last Friday at Burke High Stadium. Mohr shattered her previous personal best and finished second at state when she cleared 11 feet, 4 inches.
MOHR and Tara Starzec of Columbus Scotus waged a battle at the top of the girls pole vault. Both cleared 11 feet even, with Mohr bettering her career-best mark by three inches in the process. The girls moved up to 11-4 and both cleared that height. Starzec survived when she hit the bar on her way down. But the crossbar hopped high and bounced on the upright pegs, just barely staying on the peg for a good jump.
Mohr was asked about her thoughts watching Starzec's fortuitous effort.
"It was off," Abi said of the bar. "Watching that, my fists tightened and my fists clenched, 'Dang it! No!'"
Starzec cleared 11-8 and Mohr couldn't clear that height on three attempts, as the Bison junior settled for second.
"It was good. I hated getting second -- I could have won," Mohr said. "I've got next year, but I wanted to be back-to-back state champion, and it didn't happen. Oh, well."
KYLE CRAW is a member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln men's track team. Craw was on hand last Saturday to watch Stewart break his Bison school record.
"Coach Ramsay talked to him, and Kyle told him there's no one else he'd rather have break his record than me," Stewart said. "That was kind of nice to hear."
Entering state, Stewart's previous best vault was 14-6 when he won the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference (GNAC) title in the conference meet at Kearney May 2. CJ Huber of York had cleared 15-0 before state, but Huber missed all three attempts at 14-8 at state last Saturday, while Stewart cleared the height on his first attempt for his best-ever vault at that time.
The bar went up to 15 feet, and Stewart tied Craw's school record. Up four more inches, and Stewie missed on his first two attempts.
"That (15-4) was scary -- I'd never even made it over 15 feet before," Stewart said. "But going over it it felt really good."
After his second try, Stewart conferred with his coach.
"Coach Ramsay said I was kind of slowing down my last couple steps and I wasn't getting my plant tall enough, and I wasn't jumping on the take off," Kyle said. "So just those couple little things getting those fixed, and just keeping myself calm down here, taking deep breaths before I go."
On his third attempt, Stewart sped down the runway, planted the bar in the box, then say back and skied as the pole bent then straightened, rocketing him toward the bar. Over feet first, then curling his body over the bar, throwing his hands up in the air and falling to the pit 15 feet, 4 inches below, seeing the bar remain on the standards for a new Bison school record and a gold medal.
ONE PERSON wasn't calm during Stewart's record vault. Jody Stewart, Kyle's mom, screamed in delight from the grandstands as she and dad Wayne Stewart watched their son clear the record height.
Kyle said he heard his mom's happy response.
"I hear her every time -- 'Wooo!' She gets pretty excited," Kyle said.
Stewart also hit a personal-best last year at state when he cleared 14 feet. Ironically, he and York's Huber both cleared the height, but Huber won gold due to fewer misses, and Stewart settled for second.
"I love coming down here," Kyle said. "this is the second year in a row I've come down here and PR'ed (hit a personal-best mark). Actually, I guess I PR'ed three times (when he cleared 14-8, then 15-0, then 15-4)."
STEWART was asked about the key to his pole vault success.
"Practice, practice, practice," he said.
Kyle said Coach Ramsay joked at a parent's meeting earlier this year that Stewart always wanted to put in extra work.
"He said I was the guy after practice, 'Just one more, coach. Let me end on a good one,'" Kyle said. "Just working hard and begin there every day. Practice makes perfect, like they say."
Stewart hopes to continue his pole vaulting career at the collegiate level next year.
MOHR HOPES to take one more step up the state meet podium next spring. If she makes as much of an improvement as she did this spring, a state meet gold medal will be a strong possibility.
"Coach Ramsay told me at the end of the day (at state), 'If I had told you you were making 11-4 today, would you have believed me?' I said 'No, I would have not believed you.' And I made it. It was great," Abi said.
Mohr, who also competed in the 100-meter hurdles and the 400 relay at state, improved her previous personal-best pole vault mark by seven inches last week in Omaha. She was asked about her thoughts after she hit the school record mark.
"Oh my god, I wasn't even expecting to make 11 feet this year, and I made 11-4," she said. "So it was a good day."