Neal Tisher 13-1 article (MS)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.gulflive.com/sports/mississi ... xml&coll=5

Ole Miss track signee Tisher raising the bar
Thursday, March 12, 2009
By JOSH BEAN
Ask St. Paul's assistant track coach Lyndell Farmer what it takes to become a successful pole vaulter, and he'll rattle off a unique, daunting checklist:

-- Speed of a sprinter.

-- Strength of a running back.


-- Agility of a gymnast.

Ole Miss signee Neal Tisher possesses all three skills, emerging as one of the state's best all-time pole vaulters and an athlete whom Farmer thinks could challenge the national record this season.

"You start slow and end with your fastest step and plant the pole as high as you can," Tisher said. "Then you bend the pole, you flip your whole body upside down, pull yourself up, push off and then land."

Not so easy, right? Well, it is for Tisher, a senior at St. Paul's in Mobile.

Tisher holds the official state record of 12 feet, 7 inches, but she soared past it by six inches at last weekend's St. Paul's Relays with a jump of 13 feet, 1 inch. That ranks as the nation's best girls high school pole vault in 2009, but it's not a state record because the

AHSAA only recognizes records for jumps at the season-ending state meet.

Tisher isn't concerned about the record, knowing she broke the 13-foot barrier and can now set her sights on a new goal of 13-6. Farmer said Tisher could break 14 feet by the end of the season, or even challenge the national record of 14-4 set by Californian Tori Anthony in 2007.

Tisher also exhibited her athletic gifts by winning the 110- and 300-meter hurdles at last year's Class 5A state meet.

"You get better a little bit at a time. This is built over a period of time," said Farmer, a former pole vaulter at Arkansas. "She stuck with it, that's the main thing. You've got to want to be something and take possession of it. She decided this was something she wanted to be good at, and that's the recipe for success right there basically ability (and) the desire."

Tisher began pole vaulting as a seventh-grader, joining Farmer's jumpers after St. Paul's coach Jim Tate asked her if she had any gymnastics experience. Tisher had been a gymnast for several years before giving up the sport in middle school.


At the 2003 AHSAA meet, Tisher vaulted 7 feet the minimum height to score 1 team point. As a seventh-grader, she was hooked on the new sport.

"I loved it. It was really fun," she said. "I'm glad they exposed me to it early. It's so much fun."

And it didn't hurt that Tisher almost immediately found success.

"The first years were a ton of fun because you'd gain so many feet at a time. Then, like, you get diminishing returns after a while," Tisher said. "In seventh grade, I jumped 7 feet. Eighth grade, 10 feet. Ninth grade, 12 feet. So, I had big increases, and then it got to be inches a year."

Tisher signed last month with Ole Miss, where she will likely concentrate solely on the pole vault. In high school, she's been a three- sport athlete track, swimming and volleyball.

Tisher should immediately contend for an SEC title as a pole vaulter, Farmer said. At the SEC Indoor Championships that ended March 1 in Lexington, Ky., 17 of the 25 competitors did not reach Tisher's 13-1 vault.

LSU freshman Rachel Laurent a former rival of Tisher's won the SEC title with a vault of 14 feet, cm HALF-inch.

"I'm ready to stop having to do four events at every track meet and actually have enough energy to focus just on the vault," Tisher said.

What's Tisher's favorite part of being a pole vaulter?

"It's just different. It's not boring," she said. "A lot of track is boring. I do the fun events, you know, the hurdles and javelin is fun.

"It's weird when I tell people that I'm a pole vaulter. They're like, 'Oh, is that the thing with the stick and you jump?' Yeah, that's it."

If only they knew she has the speed of a sprinter, the strength of a running back and the agility of a gymnast.

[AVC Coach]

Congratulations to Neal! Good luck at Ole Miss!