Suhr Sports Vaulters Article

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http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20 ... 026625.asp


WNY athletes vault onto national stage

3/24/2005


By BOB DICESARE

Two years ago, Tiffany Maskulinski brought a measure of fame to Western New York by breaking the national high school record in the girls pole vault. It was quite a story, an Iroquois sophomore new to the event reaching heights others had never attained.

Maskulinski was cast as a natural, someone with an innate athletic ability conducive to the event. And it seemed safe to assume it would be, oh, another century before the area had a second vaulter of her caliber.

So here we are, in March of '05, and Maskulinski no longer holds the national high school record. That belongs to Mary Saxer, a senior at Lancaster, who this month at the Nike Indoor Championship cleared a height that would have met the secondary qualifying standard for the Athens Olympics.

But wait. Saxer's not even the most accomplished vaulter in Western New York. That distinction goes to Jennifer Stuczynski, a Fredonia High grad in her senior year at Roberts Wesleyan. Some eight months after she first picked up a pole, the unheralded, unseeded Stuczynski shocked the sport by winning the U.S. Indoor Nationals (repeat: the U.S. Indoor Nationals) in Boston late last month.

"The whole Buffalo thing is just going crazy," says Rick Suhr, the Rochester vaulting guru who's personal coach to each of the three. "Maybe you could see this happening in Southern California or Texas, but in Buffalo? And given their experience level, they're jumping way too high. They should all be going 9 feet."

Nine feet? That's for breakfast.

Suhr's right. What's happening here is astounding. Western New York female vaulters have gone over the top, soaring into the national and international rankings, establishing themselves as very real contenders for the '08 Olympic team. Buffalo does Beijing? The possibility is there.

Stuczynski won the indoor nationals at 4.35 meters (14 feet, 31/4 inches), topping a field that included a pair of Olympians. Only seven vaulters in the country have gone higher this year, six of whom are beyond college age and hold memberships in elite track clubs. Only 27 vaulters in the world have gone higher this season, and almost all of them have international experience. Stuczynski, an NAIA All-American in the 55-meter hurdles and the high jump, has been vaulting less than a year.

"She's more under the radar, but that girl in my opinion has talents that I've just not seen from any other American vaulters," Suhr said Wednesday. He envisions Stuczynski emerging, and quickly, as a threat to Stacy Dragila's long-time reign as the queen of U.S. pole vaulting. Dragila, 33, won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and holds the American (and former world) record of 4.81 meters (15-91/4) set in 2001.

Saxer, bound for Notre Dame, is right behind. Her 4.32 meters at the Nike has her ninth in the national rankings and 39th on the planet. The height had been touted as a 17-and-under world record, but it turns out Katerina Stefanidi, 15, of Greece, cleared 4.37 at a meet in Athens last month.

Saxer doesn't turn 18 until June, so there's still time to snatch the World Youth record. Kevin Carriero, her indoor coach at Lancaster, said 4.42 meters (14-6) is the goal for the outdoor season. Suhr said that might be conservative. What's clear is she's methodically approaching 14-11, which would have meant a top-three finish at the last Olympic Trials.

And on it goes. Maskulinski will be off to Washington State in the fall to toil in the highly competitive Pac-10. Her personal best, set this season, is 4.10 meters (13-51/4), which ranks 24th in the country and 73rd in the world. It's heady stuff. Who'd have imagined we'd see the day where she'd be playing catch-up on the home front?