Ellie McCardwell finds herself in rare air (IN)

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McCardwell finds herself in rare air
Pendleton Heights junior is the 2009 Herald Bulletin Girls Track Athlete of the Year

By George Bremer, Herald Bulletin Sports Writer

PENDLETON —
Ellie McCardwell is in the process of trading one Olympic dream for another.


For 10 years, the Pendleton Heights junior devoted her athletic life to gymnastics. She worked more than 20 hours a week in the gym and rose to level 10, one step below Olympic consideration.

“It was a step,” McCardwell said, “but it was definitely a pretty big one.”

In truth, her Olympic dreams began to fade sometime in middle school. She began focusing more on the sport as a way to earn a college scholarship.

Then, in her freshman year, she began focusing on life without gymnastics at all.

“I just got really burnt out,” she said. “I was at the gym 20-plus hours a week, and I didn’t think it was going to work out with having a normal high school experience.”

Gymnastics was out.

But there’s been very little “normal” about McCardwell’s high school experience.

She set a state record with a leap of 13 feet, 6 1/4 inches to win the girls pole vault state championship at Indiana University in June. A few weeks later, she won a silver medal at the Nike Outdoor Nationals to cement her place as one of the country’s best high school pole vaulters.

It’s no surprise, then, that McCardwell has been named the 2009 Herald Bulletin Girls Track Athlete of the Year.

The award is the second for McCardwell in just three years competing in the sport.

“As soon as we saw her, we knew we had something special,” Pendleton Heights coach Ron Hinton said. “That was as a sprinter.”

McCardwell took up pole vaulting during her freshman year at the suggestion of former Pendleton Heights coach Rod Hagerman. A fourth-place finish at the state finals proved her talent and left her hungry to make an even bigger mark.

McCardwell improved her personal best by more than a foot this season, and she has even loftier goals for her senior campaign.

“My goal next season is 14-6,” she said. “That would be a new national record.”

The goal might sound audacious coming from just about any other athlete. But with McCardwell, there’s a belief all things are possible.


“Pole vault is relatively new for girls,” Hinton said. “It’s very difficult when you’re just starting out. It takes a long time to even do basic things. But right from the start, she was just leaps and bounds ahead of anyone I’ve ever worked with.”

McCardwell set the school record during her freshman season, and she’s continued raising the bar ever since.

“She competes against herself,” Hinton said. “She and Margo (Tucker, the state runner-up from Lawrence Central) have a great relationship, and they love to compete against each other. They push each other, and they make each other better. But Ellie really competes against the goals she sets for herself.”

Rather than the laundry list of records and titles she’s accumulated throughout the season, McCardwell focuses on a lackluster showing at the U.S. Youth World Championships trials earlier this month as motivation.

“I had a great season,” she said. “But my season ended with the qualifying for the youth worlds. I had a poor meet, and that motivates me to get out there again and do better.”

McCardwell said her background in gymnastics has helped her prepare for big meets. She understands what’s it’s like to stand on a big stage, and those situations are less likely to intimidate her in the future.

“I still get nervous,” she said. “But I think I know how to use that energy and make it work for me.”

College coaches began calling McCardwell on July 1, the first day NCAA rules allow. But she’s yet to begin a list of schools she’s interested in.

She knows she’s looking at academics first and the track program second.

“I want to get a quality education,” she said. “That’s the most important thing.”

Her recent history suggests there are few obstacles she cannot leap.

Her success this season has even rekindled a little of that old Olympic dream. She said in a few years her goal might be to earn a spot on Team USA for the 2012 Summer Games in London.

For now, however, there’s another state championship to chase.

And a national record to erase.

“It’s a high goal,” McCardwell said of her 14-6 standard. “It’s going to take a lot of work to get there. But it’s definitely attainable.”