Kasey and Annie are so cute...

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.modbee.com/2010/02/25/106499 ... ights.html
Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010

Love soars to new heights
CSU Stanislaus pole vaulters cheer each other on to big-time success

By Brian VanderBeek
bvanderbeek@modbee.com

TURLOCK — When CSU Stanislaus junior pole vaulter Kasey Burlingham cleared 18 feet, 8½ inches [this is a typo, he made 5.40], to win the NCAA Division II championship last May, his biggest fan couldn't be there to share the moment.
It just wasn't in the budget for Annie Burlingham — herself a college student — to pay her own way to spend a week in Texas with her husband.
Annie Burlingham decided the best way to guarantee a chance to watch Kasey defend his title was to earn her own way to the championships — not by buying a ticket, but by doing her own qualifying.

Modesto Bee - DEBBIE NODA/dnoda@modbee.com Annie and husband Kasey Burlingham, Stanislaus pole vaulters help prepare the vault pit at the All Comers Track Meet at Al Brenda Track field, February 20, 2010.

The senior's rededication to training and technique already has paid off. On Feb. 5, Annie Burlingham vaulted 12 feet, 8 inches, to earn a trip to the Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships.
The national indoor meet is March 12-13 in Albuquerque, and this time Kasey will be the one staying home, since Stanislaus does not have a men's indoor track team.
"She wanted to be at the nationals with him but couldn't, and being there with her husband this year is a big part of her motivation," said Warriors pole vault coach Tom Brenda. "I'm sure she'll qualify for outdoors, so they'll be there together."
The outdoor season continues Saturday when the Warriors host the Stanislaus Open at Warrior Stadium, which will be the site of the 2011 Division II Track and Field Championships.
Annie Burlingham was introduced to the sport at Colfax High by Kasey about the time the two began to date. Then, in her second year at Cuesta College, while Kasey — then her husband — was vaulting to a state title, she began to vault competitively.
But it wasn't until Kasey came home with the national championship medal that Annie's own desire for the sport began to flourish.
"I vaulted because I could, not really because I wanted to be good at it," she said. "I spent a lot of time just doing the same things. This year, I decided I really wanted to be good at it. I saw how much fun Kasey was having being good at it, and everybody was into it."
Brenda said having a married couple on the team has been an interesting experience, particularly since they're two very different people who happen to compete in the same event.
Kasey is a quiet technician, always helping the other vaulters with calm, serious advice. Annie is the outgoing one who makes certain all around her know how much fun she's having.
And she's the first to tell you that if she didn't have her eye on Kasey at Colfax High, there's no way she'd be in Turlock right now sprinting down runways with a pole in her hand.
"We hung out in the same group through high school and people told me Kasey liked me, but he was so quiet," Annie said. "He was the cute guy who didn't say anything.
"And I didn't know anything about pole vaulting until I met Kasey. I was just trying to get his attention one day and walked across the field to watch him vault for the first time and I was like ... whoa."
'Extreme' athletes
Burlingham vaulted 15-6 at Colfax, then won the community college title in 2006 for Cuesta, boasting a 17-1 personal best. The two married in September 2005, but Annie didn't compete in the pole vault until her sophomore season.
"I just took a bunch of dance classes at Cuesta," she said. "We had one car and I'd hide out in it waiting for him during practice. To the rest of the team I was the weird chick in the car, where I did my homework and didn't talk to anybody.
"I came out of the car one day, they put a pole in my hand and told me I was vaulting the next year."

Kasey accepted an offer to move on to Oral Roberts to continue vaulting, but left without competing for the school. He then suffered a broken wrist in a mountain bike accident, and started vaulting for the Warriors last spring.
Annie's first season with Stanislaus was cut short when she shattered a pole, the mere force of which opened a gash in the webbing of her left hand that required 10 stitches to close.
The shattered pole is on display in their living room, and the scar on her hand also is a trophy.
Yes, pole vaulting is an extreme sport, one that demands the best of those who choose to challenge it.
With that in mind, have the Burlinghams considered that their children just might inherit the daredevil gene?
"Our kids are going to be super-human genetic awesomeness," she said. "People think we're odd because we are. We like to climb trees and to jump off cliffs into water and go dirt-biking.
"Our coaches have us under strict rules during the season. But in the off-season we'll just go find something to do. It will be dangerous and hilarious. I never thought about the fact that our kids are bound to be maniacs."
Separate rooms
When the Warriors are on the road, there are no married couple privileges extended to the Burlinghams.
"I've never quite understood why, but we have to stay in separate rooms," Kasey said. "They let us share a room in the last half of our last season at Cuesta, but not here. I'm not allowed to even be in her room past a certain time."
And at home, the conversation is likely to be about vaulting. Before Annie's rededication to the sport, that was something she found annoying. Now, she's the one who can't get enough of it.
"If we didn't have a new vault video to watch, he'd pull out an old one and I'd find myself wondering why we had to talk about the same old thing," she said. "Now, I want to talk about the vault and I think he's getting irritated. We look at video all day.
"We're the equivalent of sports geeks. When we get around coaches we know, we'll stay up until 4 in the morning talking about the pole vault and it makes you feel like a real goober."
The goals haven't changed with Annie's qualifying for the indoor meet. Kasey would like nothing better than to successfully defend his outdoor title, while Annie wants to join him in Charlotte, N.C., by vaulting her way onto the plane.
"I just want to do well," she said. "I don't want to talk about it and put myself in any position to fail. My problem now is trusting that I've worked hard enough to warrant this."

[vaultmd]

The pics are way cute . . .

[AVC Coach]

Great story! Good luck to Kasey and Annie!

[coach lou]

Class act,both of them! Add in Coach Tom and former coach Kim Duyst, I can't say enough what good people they are. Looking forward to headed out your way next year for DII Outdoor Nationals.


Coach lou

[somechick]

Thanks guys! The support from the pole vault community has been awesome and we are lucky to have a lot of coaches, and athletes that believe in us and help us out.