Clovis - Frawley 5.50
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:11 pm
Clovis vault fest pleases Olympian
Silver-winning Morris has witnessed sport's evolution.
Posted at 11:17 PM on Friday, Aug. 12, 2011
By Andy Boogaard / The Fresno Bee
An Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault 51 years ago, yet a man who has often feared for the event's survival since, Ron Morris watched with pleasure -- if not relief -- Friday night in downtown Clovis.
It was here, at Pollasky Avenue and Fourth Street, that the EYE-Q North American Pole Vaulting Championships were held among the masses for the 17th time.
Participants ranged from teens to pros, male and female, firing off an elevated runway about 3 feet wide and sailing between two mature trees illuminated by generator-operated lights.
Fear? Concern? Nowhere, but that wasn't always the case. And who knows better than the man who experienced the gamut of vaulting evolution, transitioning from bamboo to steel to fiberglass poles in the 1950s and '60s.
"But then pole vaulting became kind of an endangered species," said Morris, 76, second at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. "People were dropping it at schools, it was expensive, lawyers said it was liability, there were some lawsuits and not very many coaches."
And Morris' trepidation increased when the sport crossed the gender line and into the hands of such pioneers as the former Melissa Price of Kingsburg in the mid-90s.
"When the girls came in I was really concerned because if one them got hurt we were really in trouble."
Yet the female impact would have a reverse effect.
"They brought a lot of energy and excitement to the event, and it really helped," he said. "And their participation in the Olympics has really helped."
Standing nearby while he said this was Stacy Dragila, who won the first female Olympic pole vault gold while representing the U.S. in 2000.
A former Clovis street vault participant, she's retired but hasn't dismissed the idea of making a run at the 2012 Games in London.
Meanwhile, Dragila is coaching high school vaulters in San Diego. She coached Team San Diego, which, with a total of 51 feet, 6 inches, placed second to Team Los Angeles (52-6) in the six-team high school competition Friday night. Teams each had two males and females.
Team Clovis delivered the top male and female prep vaulters in Clovis' Scott Greenman (15-6) and Clovis West's recently graduated Anginae Monteverde (13-0).
For Greenman, who will be a senior, "it was the best experience of my life." And to think he said this two months after winning the Central Section Master's crown at 15-8 and placing fourth in the state at 15-6.
"Oh my gosh, these people are awesome, it's really exhilarating," said Greenman, who drew a collective roar by clearing 15-6 on his third try, clipping and wobbling the bar.
Nick Frawley of the U.S. Air Force Academy, won the Elite Division at 18-01/2 -- a half inch below his personal record. He just missed at an Olympic Trials standard height of 18-4-1/2.
Silver-winning Morris has witnessed sport's evolution.
Posted at 11:17 PM on Friday, Aug. 12, 2011
By Andy Boogaard / The Fresno Bee
An Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault 51 years ago, yet a man who has often feared for the event's survival since, Ron Morris watched with pleasure -- if not relief -- Friday night in downtown Clovis.
It was here, at Pollasky Avenue and Fourth Street, that the EYE-Q North American Pole Vaulting Championships were held among the masses for the 17th time.
Participants ranged from teens to pros, male and female, firing off an elevated runway about 3 feet wide and sailing between two mature trees illuminated by generator-operated lights.
Fear? Concern? Nowhere, but that wasn't always the case. And who knows better than the man who experienced the gamut of vaulting evolution, transitioning from bamboo to steel to fiberglass poles in the 1950s and '60s.
"But then pole vaulting became kind of an endangered species," said Morris, 76, second at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. "People were dropping it at schools, it was expensive, lawyers said it was liability, there were some lawsuits and not very many coaches."
And Morris' trepidation increased when the sport crossed the gender line and into the hands of such pioneers as the former Melissa Price of Kingsburg in the mid-90s.
"When the girls came in I was really concerned because if one them got hurt we were really in trouble."
Yet the female impact would have a reverse effect.
"They brought a lot of energy and excitement to the event, and it really helped," he said. "And their participation in the Olympics has really helped."
Standing nearby while he said this was Stacy Dragila, who won the first female Olympic pole vault gold while representing the U.S. in 2000.
A former Clovis street vault participant, she's retired but hasn't dismissed the idea of making a run at the 2012 Games in London.
Meanwhile, Dragila is coaching high school vaulters in San Diego. She coached Team San Diego, which, with a total of 51 feet, 6 inches, placed second to Team Los Angeles (52-6) in the six-team high school competition Friday night. Teams each had two males and females.
Team Clovis delivered the top male and female prep vaulters in Clovis' Scott Greenman (15-6) and Clovis West's recently graduated Anginae Monteverde (13-0).
For Greenman, who will be a senior, "it was the best experience of my life." And to think he said this two months after winning the Central Section Master's crown at 15-8 and placing fourth in the state at 15-6.
"Oh my gosh, these people are awesome, it's really exhilarating," said Greenman, who drew a collective roar by clearing 15-6 on his third try, clipping and wobbling the bar.
Nick Frawley of the U.S. Air Force Academy, won the Elite Division at 18-01/2 -- a half inch below his personal record. He just missed at an Olympic Trials standard height of 18-4-1/2.
