Harman keeps raising pole vault personal best (NJ)

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Harman keeps raising pole vault personal best
Colonial has scaled 14-0
BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer
Scott Harman is flying high with the aid of a fiberglass pole. The Freehold Borough senior has become one of the top pole-vaulters in the state, having raised his personal best from 12-0 at the start of the season to 14-0.


Above and below: Freehold Boro High School's Scott Harman practices the pole vault on May 22. Harman's personal best is currently 14 feet, and he feels that 15 feet is within reach at some point this season.
It started with his 13-6 personal best in capturing the Freehold Regional District title and continued to the Shore Conference meet, where he pushed it up to 14-0. He is one of a very few Freehold Regional District vaulters to scale 14-0 (the record is held by a former Colonial, Jonas TePaske, who did 15-6) and he believes 15- 0 could be in his future.

A year ago, Harman was pole vaulting with an outdated bamboo pole. That's because the Colonial was in Belgium, spending a school year there as an exchange student.

"It's something I always wanted to do," he said of his year as an exchange student. "I wanted to learn another language. It was the greatest experience of my life.


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"It started out like a vacation," he added. "Then, I had a life there, I had friends and activities to do."

Harman, who learned French while attending school in Brussels, has stayed in touchwith the friends hemet in Europe and went back to Belgium over spring break.

While attending high school there, he did do some pole vaulting. There was only one problem, he broke the only fiberglass pole at the school and spent the rest of the season on bamboo. With the new pole, all he could do was match his Freehold Borough best of 12-0 as a sophomore. That 12-0 on bamboo was closer to what he is doing now

"It pushes you up slower, you have more time to work on your form," he said. "I knew I was vaulting better. I didn't have the equipment to show it."

After a season on bamboo, when Harman got back onto fiberglass he had the chance to show how much he had improved. It all started to come together along with his physical maturity.

"I'm much better in my speed (on the run-up) and strength," he pointed out. "I need to improve my form."

Harman runs the hurdles and throws the javelin (he placed fifth at the Monmouth County Championships with a throw of 155-10) as well as pole vaulting for the Colonials. The sprinting he does for the hurdles is a big help when it comes to his run-up for the pole vault. The better speed he has on the run-up gives him more momentum when he swings back on the pole and inverts.

"Once you've planted the pole, it's all energy," he pointed out.

Harman, who will be competing for Grove City College in Pennsylvania next year, is currently reading a book on pole vaulting by the master of the event himself, Sergey Bubka, the world record holder (20-2 ½) and the only vaulter to ever clear 20 feet. Harman credits that with helping him to understand the nuances of the event better.

Currently, Harman is trying to break in a new pole, 15-0, 170-pound, that is heavier than the 14-6, 165 he has been vaulting with. Once he gets comfortable with the heavier pole, he believes he'll be going higher.

Harman, who has always liked track and field, came by the event almost by accident. He did the long jump and high jump in middle school and remembers a conversation while he was in the eighth grade with Freehold Borough High School pole-vaulter Liz Brown.

"She told me I should give the pole vault a try," he recalled.

Which he did when he became a freshman, and he quickly found the event to his liking.

"Pole vaulting has to be one of the most fun things ever," he said. "There is no other sport you can go that high in the air."

Harman found success in the event quickly. He finished second at the freshman/ sophomore Monmouth County Championships, clearing 10-6 by the end of the year.

"One of my goals was to get inverted on the pole," he said of his freshman campaign.

Harman improved to 12-0 as a sophomore, the same height he would clear in Belgium with the bamboo pole.

This spring it's all clicking for the Colonial, and he heads into state sectionals with more opportunities to raise his personal best, something he is looking forward to.