Kortney Ross 13'0 Junior, San Diego

[pvcoachboo]

Kortney Ross, Junior, Westview High School, San Diego

Meet: Escondido Invite- Friday May 1, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQwTzbtisMU

Bar progression and pole in video: 11'4 (14' 160lb), 11'10 (14'165lb), 12'5 (14'6 160lb), 13'0 (14'6 165lb)

She is holding at about 13'6 ish.


There is still a lot of technique work to be done, but "a make is a make" as they say. Just wait till she takes off right and gets all the way upsidedown. Next year is going to be very exciting.

Last year pr- 12'4
Last weekend at UC San Diego Meet- 12'7
Yesterday- 13'-0

100m 12.43
200m 25.42

[rainbowgirl28]

Holy crap those are some big poles! How tall is she?

[pvcoachboo]

She is 6ft tall and about 140lbs

[rainbowgirl28]

She is 6ft tall and about 140lbs

She must have college coaches drooling over her! It looks like she is off to a very solid start. Looking forward to seeing what she does in the future

[marshall]

wow, congrats to her! i've seen her at a couple of camps and such but i didn't know she was that good. lol


wow, she's on the same poles i use. man. hahah

[rbvaulter#1]

Thats awesome! Her speed is incredible. If she can fix her technique she'd have 13-6 and 14-0 would be coming

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... r-pole-va/

Ross brings go-for-broke air to pole vault
By Steve Brand
2:00 a.m. May 15, 2009

After Kortney Ross cleared 13 feet in the pole vault at the Escondido Invitational, she had a choice.

The Westview High junior could have raised the bar 2 inches. If successful, Ross would have become the state leader this season. She also could have raised it 3 inches and equaled the best in the nation.

Ross had the bar placed at 13-4.

“It was only four inches,” said Ross, who didn't clear 13-4 but hopes to get another chance at that height when the Valley League Championships begin at 3:15 p.m. today at Valley Center High.

That pretty much explains Ross' thinking – just go for it.

That's the mentality of nearly every good pole vaulter, but Ross carries it to all her events. She will compete in four today.

The pole vault, though, has become her signature event, even though she was a little confused when told she had set the San Diego Section record.

That's because although Ross picked off the section mark of 12-10, set by Rancho Bernardo's Emily Mattoon a year ago, the all-time section best is 13-3.

Rancho Bernardo's Tracy O'Hara scaled 13-3 in 1998, but that came during the summer after the State Championships. Section records must be set during the regular season.

Knowing that confirmed for Ross that she made the right decision two weeks ago at Escondido.

“My thinking is if I can clear 13-2, I can clear 13-4,” Ross said. “I knew about the state and national bests, but I thought the section record was 13-3.”

At the Valley League prelims Tuesday, Ross wasn't required to vault, so she focused on two other events, clocking the fastest overall time in the 200 meters (25.10 seconds) and the No. 2 mark in the 100 hurdles (15.18), both personal bests.

She'll add the 400 relay and pole vault today, making for a busy meet.

“(The other events) help the pole vault by improving speed and endurance,” said Ross, who doesn't fit the stereotype of a successful pole vaulter – compact with a gymnastics background. She stands 6 feet tall and is not particularly fond of gymnastics.

Still, four events?

“It'll be pretty busy,” said Ross, who has a plan worked out.

She'll warm up for the 400-meter relay, transfer her thoughts to the hurdles, change focus to the pole vault and then warm up again for the 200. She knows it'll be a challenge.

Coach Mark Johnson said Ross' versatility, plus the ability to absorb instruction and apply it immediately, is what sets her apart.

“She trusts her coach,” Johnson said. “When you tell her to move her step back or take off harder, you see results right away. She has a bright future in the vault or anything she sets her mind to.”

Including hoping to capture a state title June 6 in Fresno.

“There are three of us in the state over 13 feet right now,” Ross said, “so it'll come down to whoever has the best meet that day.”

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... igh-preps/

No bar appears too high
Westview senior Ross maps out record-breakers

BY STEVE BRAND, SPECIAL TO THE UNION-TRIBUNE
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010 AT 12:02 A.M.


PEGGY PEATTIE / UNION-TRIBUNE

Westview senior Kortney Ross set the San Diego Section record in the girls pole vault last year when she went 13 feet, 4 inches while winning the state championship. This season, Ross has her sights set on going 14-4 which would give her the national high school record.

Kortney Ross has this pretty much figured out.

The Westview High senior says this year she can improve a foot in the pole vault to 14 feet, 4 inches, setting the national high school record. After four years at the University of Oregon, she plans to own the NCAA record at 15-4.

By the time the 2016 Olympics roll around, she thinks she can go after the world record, which she estimates will be close to 17-4.

Listening to Ross talk you realize this doesn’t appear to be another pipe dream from one of those lunatic pole vaulters who has spent too much time falling from the height of a two-story building into a little foam-rubber pit.

Oh, yes, about all of those heights ending in four. Ross set the San Diego Section record at 13-4 last year en route to capturing the state title, so she likes that number.

Asked about her first goal of breaking the high school record, she couldn’t come up with a single good reason it can’t happen.

“I know (the record) is 14-1, but it doesn’t matter because I‘m going 14-4 anyway,” Ross said. “Last year I started at 10-8 in my first meet and this year I went 12-5 in the same meet. I know I can’t improve two feet every year, there is a limit, but 14-4 can happen.

“Ideally, it’ll be warm, no wind and plenty of competition when I do it, but it could happen any time. My two best performances last year were days I felt terrible.”

Arriving late for the Escondido Invitational, she was forced to rush her warm-up and would not have been surprised to no-height. Instead she soared 13 feet, passing the 12-9 section record of Rancho Bernardo’s Kate Mattoon.

At the State Championships in Clovis, again her warm-ups portended disaster, yet once the competition began there was no one better.

Ross may talk and even think like a pole vaulter, which is why they are considered the most eccentric of the free spirits on a track team, but you look at her and her performances in other events and you quickly realize she has special qualities.

For starters, she’s 6 feet tall, which allows her to use a longer pole and higher grip.

And then there is her speed. She won the Valley League 200-meter dash and was among the section leaders in the 100-meter hurdles.

Competitive? She qualified for state by finishing second in the section meet despite battling the flu and then in the State Championships matched defending champion Emily Mattoon of RB and Santa Margarita’s Claire Hawkins vault for vault until she tried a personal best 13-4.

On her second attempt, Ross brushed the crossbar about as much as you can without bringing it down, looking up in disbelief when she landed in the pit.

“I hit it pretty good,” she said with a chuckle. “I landed in the pit and thought ‘Oh my God, it’s still up there.’ Then I scrambled out.”

Until the competitor exits the landing pit, the vault is not official.

Moving the bar up to 13-6, Ross acknowledged her three tries weren’t very good because of the adrenaline she had flowing through her body by that time.

No one would blame her if she focused only on the vault, but that’s not Ross, who is getting some coaxing by Wolverines coach Jamal Felton to think in terms of trying a heptathlon some day.

Ross said it won’t be this year, but, if Oregon needs her to do that, she would try as long as she was able to train for the “distance” race, the 800-meter run, which is the final event of the grueling seven-event competition.

“She could do that, in fact I think it could be her best event,” said Felton, who will assume the head coaching duties for this year at Westview. “She has jumped 16-11 in the long jump without any coaching or training and I know she could throw the javelin.”

Felton said Ross basically could do whatever she wanted in virtually any event.

“She has God-given talent for one,” he said, “and she wants to be great — not good — great. She’s proactive. You don’t have to tell her what to do. She will create her own plan to make something happen.

“She can be a 14-foot pole vaulter, no, she will be a 14-foot pole vaulter. She has that natural speed and she’s working on her technique. She’s way more confident now, but it remains to be seen if she has that inner fire.”

Ross can answer that question if she comes anywhere near her goals.

Along with 14-4 in the vault, she wants to be in the 24s in the 200 (her best is 25.10) and she has a time of somewhere in the 14s in the 100-meter hurdles (her best is 15.18).

Unlike last year, when she dropped everything else, she’d also like to compete in at least those three events at the state meet.

Basketball, volleyball, soccer coaches — they all look at Ross enviously, but she has no interest in playing those sports competitively. She hasn’t since being introduced to track as an eighth-grader.

“I found out I was fast, faster even than the boys back then,” Ross said. “Sometimes I ask myself ‘why track?’ but I have so much energy and it’s a ton of fun, especially the pole vault.”

So, isn’t it scary to catapult oneself into the stratosphere?

“The only time it’s scary is when you’re unsure of yourself,” said Ross, who certainly doesn’t lack confidence. “You go too fast to think about it once you start your run. Because I’m tall, I have a little more trouble with technique than smaller girls, but there are advantages, too.”

If you’re thinking 17-4 one day, maybe 14-4 doesn’t look so high right now.

[marco05]

Omni Hotel San DiegoLa Jolla Beach and Tennis Club
She is 6ft tall and about 140lbs

She must have college coaches drooling over her! It looks like she is off to a very solid start. Looking forward to seeing what she does in the future

Well did she get a full ride? I'm sure she did. Good job Kortney!

[SRpolevaulter]

Haha crud. I have to vault against her. Well there goes all my hopes and dreams she is great. Good job Kortney.

[vaultmd]

Code: Select all

“I hit it pretty good,” she said with a chuckle. “I landed in the pit and thought ‘Oh my God, it’s still up there.’ Then I scrambled out.”

Until the competitor exits the landing pit, the vault is not official.

Someone needs to read a rule book . . .