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http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20 ... 019497.asp

Record heights vault Saxer to prominence

1/27/2005


By JERRY SULLIVAN

It began innocently enough. In September 2003, Mary Saxer was attending a long jump clinic at Rick Suhr's track facility in Churchville, outside Rochester. One of the coaches noticed Saxer's long arms and powerful running stride and said she would be a prime candidate for Suhr's specialty - the pole vault.

Suhr agreed. He told Saxer, then a Lancaster High junior, she could eventually clear 10 feet, which would help her chances of getting a scholarship. Saxer liked the idea. So did her parents, Ann and Donald, who had watched her compete in gymnastics for years and figured pole vaulting couldn't be any more risky.

So within days, Suhr put Saxer through his eight-hour pole vaulting orientation. When she was ready, he took her to work out with two of his top female proteges, Tiffany Maskulinski of Iroquois and Jennifer O'Neil of Fairport.

"You're taller and faster than them," Suhr said. "You can jump higher."

Saxer gave Suhr a disbelieving look. Maskulinski and O'Neil were the nation's top-ranked high school vaulters at the time. She was supposed to be better?

But Suhr was right. Two weeks ago at the Dartmouth Relays, Saxer became the first U.S. high school girl to clear 14 feet indoors. Maskulinski was second. As a result, Saxer was invited to compete in the Millrose Games on Feb. 4 in Madison Square Garden. She will compete against the world's elite vaulters, including former world and Olympic champion Stacy Dragila.

It's rare for a high schooler to be invited to the Millrose Games, the top indoor meet in America. The U.S. track federation held a national news conference this week with Dragila and Suhr. Saxer was busy taking a three-hour exam.

"When I found out I was invited, I couldn't really believe it," Saxer said Tuesday. "For field events, they only invite the top five. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

The Millrose attracts crowds in the 16,000 range. Saxer has no illusions about winning, but she'd like to break her high school record. If the crowd is anything like at Dartmouth, it'll be a night to remember.

Maskulinski broke the record first that day, clearing 13-51/2 on her first attempt. Saxer did it on her second. At that point, the meet stopped and the crowd of around 2,000 turned its attention to the girls from Western New York.

"You had to be there," Suhr said. "When you have 2,000 people that pumped up, cheering you on, I've never seen anything so intense. And two girls from Buffalo were doing it! Tiffany and Mary are both dependent on each other, no question. They guide and push each other, and neither would jump as high without the other."

Saxer was the only one to clear 13-71/4, breaking the record again. Then she cleared 14 feet, which Suhr called a "monumental jump." Not only is it the national high school record, it tied the U.S. junior record for girls 20 and under.

It's heady stuff for Saxer, an honor student who wants to attend a top track college with strong academics. Her top choices are Nebraska and North Carolina; she'll visit Notre Dame this weekend.

Almost overnight, Saxer has become a rising star of U.S. track and field. Her mother says you'd never know it. Like Suhr, Saxer's more interested in reaching her potential than some record.

"I don't like to set a specific goal, like 15 feet," she said, "because I've come along so fast. I just want to perfect my technique and see how high I can go. My friends tell me I'm the same old Mary. Other people ask, "Oh, my God, are you going to be in the Olympics?' "

Saxer says she hadn't thought about the Olympics until recently. But when you're the best in the country, it's natural to wonder. When you've reached the top in 16 months, there's no telling what heights you might reach.

you can see the viddeo of the 14' jump on www.airtimeathletics.com Mary definately has more in her

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20 ... 061312.asp

RAISING THE BAR

Cover story: Lancaster senior is world's best pole vaulter for her age

By RODNEY MCKISSIC
News Sports Reporter
5/3/2005



Mark Mulville/Buffalo News
A suggestion by her coach helped Mary Saxer reach new heights.
Click to view larger picture

Click to view larger picture

Mark Mulville/Buffalo News
Lancaster's Mary Saxer competes in the long jump during a meet with Frontier.

Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News
It was a hunch. One of those gut feelings by an old coach. Looking back, it was the first volley of an epic encounter.
Eighteen months ago, during her junior year at Lancaster High School, Mary Saxer was one of the state's best long jumpers and a good runner. She attended a long-jump camp in Churchville coached by track and field maven Rick Suhr to increase her chances at some scholarship money from a Division I program. But that was before Suhr went with his hunch.

"Mary," Suhr asked. "Have you ever tried the pole vault?"

There was some apprehension. Saxer had soared high, but never that high. After just a few tries it was clear Suhr's hunch was on the money.

"The first day, I cleared over eight feet," said Saxer, whose initial vault was the equivalent of a beginner driving a golf ball 200 yards straight down the fairway. "It was weird running with a pole in your hand, but it was exciting at the same time. It was new and just the fact that I could get over the bar was exciting."

A wunderkind began forming right before our eyes.

Heading into the Dartmouth Relays in January, she already had broken the national scholastic record three times. She did it twice more at Dartmouth, topping out at 14-foot-0. In March, Saxer jolted the sport in the Nike International Championships in Landover, Md., clearing 14-1/2 and then setting an American junior (under-20) record, clearing 14-2 and shattering the meet record by more than
a foot. That was the best vault ever in the world by a female 17-under and it would have won the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship. It was a stunning coming-out party for Saxer, her first taste of national prominence. Suhr called it "the biggest upset in track and field I've seen in 10 years."

"I've just been in awe of what she's done," said Saxer's father, Donald. "It doesn't seem real. Like my son said to me one time, "She has a national record. That's . . . my . . . sister.'"

She is now mentioned in the same breath as Stacy Dragila, the Michael Jordan of the pole vault, and some have her pegged for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. This year alone she's been to New York City three times within six weeks and competed in the prestigious Millrose Games, a nationally televised event at Madison Square Garden where she competed against Dragila. Dragila, the American indoor and outdoor record holder in the women's pole vault (15-91/4), didn't jump at Millrose until she was well into college.

"For her to rub shoulders with me and (two-time Olympian) Kellie Suttle and the like, is really going to give her confidence going into the outdoor season and beyond," Dragila told California Track and Running News.

A Nike representative, in search of the Next Young Phenom in track and field, made an inquiry about Saxer signing a deal and turning pro. Dragila's agent made a point to give Saxer his card following the Millrose Games. She was one of Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd in February, and has been featured in the New York Times.

Elite pole vaulters come from Florida, California or Oregon, not Western New York, which Suhr calls, "the worst geographical location for pole vaulting weather-wise."

She's probably the only nationally ranked vaulter who hasn't competed outdoors this year, yet even Dragila calls the youngster the future of the sport.

Eighteen months ago, Saxer's main concern was landing a partial scholarship. Then she found herself able to get a full ride to any school in the country. She spent hours talking to coaches from schools like Virginia, Princeton, Stanford and Arizona. She narrowed her choices to Notre Dame, Nebraska, North Carolina, Duke and Miami (Ohio).

Her father offered some advice.

"I always told her, there's four facets to your life in school: Where do you want to wake up in the morning and go to bed at night?" Donald said. "Where do you want to go to school and where do you want to do your athletics?"

In the end Notre Dame won.

"I had no idea that a year later it would be like this," Saxer said. "I was just hoping for a school record or something."

And none of it is overwhelming. Exciting, yes, but not overwhelming.

Saxer wasn't groomed all her life like some childhood protege like Tiger Woods, who appeared on The Mike Douglas Show while still in diapers. With many athletes at the elite level it's all about the sport, but track doesn't consume Saxer. It's just a part of her life. If it all ended today, she would just go back to being Mary, the shopaholic who listens to country music, hangs out with her friends at the movies on weekends or eats dinner with her family at the Olive Garden.

"She's just fine when it's happening and she handles it," said Saxer's mother, Ann. "But she could do without it, too."

Said Donald: "Some people view her as a phenomenon or whatever but she doesn't view herself that way. She likes all this, but this doesn't define her. She's still Mary."

She first wanted to be a gymnast and trained hard six days a week for eight years. She reached level 8. But gymnastics can be isolating and she didn't want it to run her life, so Saxer quit just before she entered the eighth grade and joined track because she had friends on the team. Dropping a hint of things to come, Saxer placed third in the state indoor meet as a sophomore.

That was before Suhr's hunch, before she became a regular at Suhr's 4,000-square foot facility which is also the home to Western New York vaulters like Jennifer Stuczynski and Tiffany Maskulinski. Saxer trains with Suhr three times a week.

"We were just looking to pick up another event for her to increase scholarship money down the road, something she would be pretty good at," Suhr said. "Not something she would dominate the country at."

In her first jump at a meet, Saxer cleared 9-6. Soon after she cleared 12-0. Then came the Dartmouth Relays, where Saxer became the first U.S. high school female to clear 14-0 indoors or outdoors.

Said Saxer: "It really didn't sink in then. It was like, "Wow, I'm the first person to ever do that in high school.' It seemed so unrealistic."

"That was monumental," Suhr said. "It was a jump that people didn't anticipate for another five years. It was like when (Sergei) Bubka jumped 20. It was just an incredible jump."

Her Dartmouth performance led to the Millrose invite where she cleared her opening height of 13-3/4 on her first attempt, then knocked the bar off three times at 13-61/2. Disappointed? How could she be when a year ago Saxer was watching the Millrose from her family room?

"I was watching Marion Jones and thinking, "I'm probably never going to get to compete there,' " Saxer said.

Dragila was impressed.

"She was very composed and she was very close to making it over the bar," Dragila told reporters. "She has a bright future. I just hope she doesn't come on too fast."

That's why Saxer doesn't think much about the Olympics. Yes, it's been brought up and friends have joked about traveling to Beijing to watch her compete. But the Olympics, especially the trials, are always full of surprises. Unknowns shoot to the forefront, favorites topple into oblivion. It's risky to let everything ride on it. The 2012 Games - perhaps in New York City - might be more realistic.

"If that comes along in three or four years, great, I'll take it," Saxer said. "If it doesn't, then fine."

Said Ann: "There's a lot of ifs. You know how sports goes. You don't want to get ahead of yourself."

Saxer has a degree to earn from Notre Dame, which is why signing with Nike and turning pro didn't get past that initial contact. She has to figure out how to keep in contact with all her childhood buddies when she leaves for school in the fall.

She has time before becoming the face of the future.

wow. very impressive!

PVPirate26 wrote:wow. very impressive!

....I'll have to take a picture of her after i get knocked out and she puts the bar up like 3 more feet. Next year is gonna be fun for the Big East!

Great article here: http://www.dyestat.com/3us/5out/NikeOut ... -saxer.htm