Arizona Vaulters Article

[rainbowgirl28]

http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/98/143/02_1.html

Vaulters fly into Pac-10s










JOSH FIELDS/Arizona Daily Wildcat


Sophomore Megan Cassidy hurls herself at the bar April 2 during the Arizona Invitational at Drachman Stadium. The success of the UA pole vaulting team may largely be because of their teamwork.

By J. Ryan Casey
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
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Led by seniors Chris Chappell and Kevin Opalka, the Arizona men's pole-vaulters have the potential to send five athletes to Eugene, Ore., May 27-28 for the NCAA West Region Championships.

"What they're doing right now, in terms of qualifying for the regional meet, it could be pretty impressive," Arizona track and field head coach Fred Harvey said.

The unique event features athletes hurling themselves at heights as high as 16 feet on the men's side.

"It's a real exciting event, and it's one of those things - it really fires up their teammates, and the crowd," Harvey said. "People understand the stress, the fear factor of vaulting, the danger of it. When you see a good vault, I think it raises the level of excitement."

Vaulting coach Eric Boxley found it hard to put into words how much skill it really takes.

"Well - wow - considerable," he said. "It takes considerable talent, and I think a diverse set of skills, to be able to do this."

"You have to be a sprinter, a gymnast and a daredevil," Harvey said.

Sophomore women's vaulter Becky Gausepohl said that while vaulting is second nature to competitors, for the average person, it's like "driving stickshift, talking on the phone and eating all at once."

Gausepohl said that her favorite part of pole vaulting might be not clearing the bar.

"It's a lot of fun flying around," she said.

On the men's side, meanwhile, the athletes' success breeds competition.

"It raises the bar, so to speak," Harvey said, smiling. "When one person's doing well, and you have a whole group of (vaulters) starting to perform, no one wants to be left out."

Boxley said having all the athletes compete together creates a winning atmosphere.

"I think that's been one of the vital components of this program," he said. "We've always had a group that will push each other, challenge each other. It just makes for a good training environment when you have that."

The vaulters themselves acknowledged how helpful it is to have team success.

"I don't know if I'd call it a rivalry," Chappell said. "But I know for me, jumping against (Opalka), neither one of us likes to lose to each other."

Junior Adam Zimnisky agreed, adding that it's important to see his teammates succeed as well.

"We all want to beat each other," he said. "But we want to beat each other on all of our best days. I don't want to beat somebody who has a bad day. I want to beat them with a (personal record)."

"We want to see everybody jump their best and hope, personally, that we can jump a little bit better than their best," said junior Sam Jacobsen.

Harvey said that the vaulters' competitiveness is evident, even in practice.

"If you're ever out there and you're watching them get at it, they definitely start challenging each other, just pumping each other up. Even if it's during stretching, they are definitely challenging one another," he said.

Harvey recognized the importance of having a vault specialist this season. Instead of handling all the jumping events, Boxley now focuses specifically on pole vault.

Harvey took over for Boxley in the other events.

"I think me taking over the jumps really has made a profound impact on what (the vaulters) are doing," Harvey said. "I'm not saying it's all about me - because it's not about me - but it just really gives (Boxley) that opportunity to focus in on what they are doing."

Heading into Friday's Cardinal Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., Chappell, Opalka, Jacobson and freshman Andrew Rademacher had all qualified for the West Regionals. Zimnisky is the lone member of the group to have not yet qualified.

Zimnisky has a chance to qualify in Tempe, as the Wildcats face ASU Saturday in the Arizona-ASU-NAU Double-Dual.

[Azbeachboy1]

YEah BABY!!!!

[jomrus]

Nice write up. But what's with the quote:

"The unique event features athletes hurling themselves at heights as high as 16 feet on the men's side. "

You guys jump higher than that...don't you?

[Azbeachboy1]

Nice write up. But what's with the quote:

"The unique event features athletes hurling themselves at heights as high as 16 feet on the men's side. "

You guys jump higher than that...don't you?

Yeah of course we do, 16'1 is our 5th best guys highest. The paper always seems to have mistakes.

[cats]

Yeah of course we do, 16'1 is our 5th best guys highest. The paper always seems to have mistakes.

Oh ouch. That's not true. Only sometimes.

[jomrus]

I have never had a write up about me that didn't have mistakes in it. (IE) My freshman year in college, I got a sweet write up for winning our conference; the article was entirely about me. It was sweet. Except for the picture. It was a picture of my teammate, and the caption had my name on it. Nice...

[cats]

I have never had a write up about me that didn't have mistakes in it. (IE) My freshman year in college, I got a sweet write up for winning our conference; the article was entirely about me. It was sweet. Except for the picture. It was a picture of my teammate, and the caption had my name on it. Nice...

Just be careful of generalizing. You don't know what it's like to be on the other side of the media. We have to deal with all kinds of stuff, and granted some times there are mistakes, but 90% of the time there aren't any. The only reason people think that mistakes happen all the time is because they're notable, so people tend to remember them.

As far as the picture of your teammate goes.. I don't know how your paper runs it, but at my school, that's a separate desk, so sometimes things like that happen because of miscommunication between the desks (ie Copy and Sports), but by no means is that the writers fault.

All I'm saying is that many people take the media for granted. Without us, no one would know what's going on in the world. You need us just as much as we need you, if not more.

[jomrus]

You are so right, however, I'm still gonna kick and scream the whole way when someone can't get a paragraph of information right.

[cats]

You are so right, however, I'm still gonna kick and scream the whole way when someone can't get a paragraph of information right.

Haha, oversimplifying now. While I understand that it can be very frustrating to have someone give incorrect information, it usually happens because editors change the writers original context. (Example: for that story above.. yes it is my story.. I was talking to the head coach about his vaulters, and said something along the lines of how his vaulters clear upwards of 16 feet. My original sentence was: "The unique event features athletes hurling themselves at heights which often exceed 16 feet on the men’s side," but my editors changed it.) Contrary to popular belief, writers don't have the final say in our stories, our editors do.

[jomrus]

Well you should! Have the final say that is....

[cats]

Haha, while I enjoy your optimism, that simply would never work. If that were the case, newspapers would be littered with biased thoughts. For the most part, editors do a lot more good than they do harm.

[jomrus]

That's doubtful...