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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05098/484985.stm

2 WPIAL girls vault into prominence, soar to new heights


Friday, April 08, 2005
By Mike White, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


One attends a high school an hour east of Pittsburgh. The other hails from a school an hour north.




Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette
Butler High School's Kendall Butch waits her turn to vault in a meet against North Hills.
Click photo for larger image.

One tried the pole vault four years ago at the urging of her father. The other tried the pole vault last year, only after she couldn't compete in gymnastics any longer because of an injury.

But while the backgrounds of Caitlin Hewitt and Kendall Butch are vastly different, they have a meeting place. You can't call it common ground. It's more like common air.

Hewitt, a junior at Latrobe, and Butch, a junior at Butler, can usually be found soaring to great heights over a pole vault bar. It wouldn't be an overstatement to call them two of the top girls' pole vaulters in the country. And they're both right here in Western Pennsylvania.

During the winter indoor track and field season, Hewitt and Butch both cleared 12 feet, 7 inches, which tied them for the seventh-best mark in the country, according to Track & Field News.

The outdoor season is in its infancy, but Hewitt already has cleared 12 feet, which is the fourth-best height in WPIAL history. Butch cleared 11-6 last year, the fifth-best mark in WPIAL history. Her best this season is 11-0, but she will certainly go to greater heights as the season progresses.

Both Hewitt and Butch said they have cleared 13 feet in practice. The WPIAL all-time record is 12-6.

"I think it's pretty unusual to have two from one area in the top 10 in the country," said Jim Faiella, a PIAA track and field official who has compiled the WPIAL girls' track and field honor roll for 26 years. "I think it's more unusual to have two in a state like Pennsylvania that is not really conducive to an event like pole vaulting as a warmer state would be."

But Western Pennsylvania girls have shined in the pole vault since the event was started in Pennsylvania in 1999. For example, in 2001, Erie McDowell's Emily Tharpe had the third-best height in the country at 13-2 1/2. That same year, Waynesburg's Jocelyn Lindsay cleared 12-6, which tied for 14th best in the country.

"For some reason, a lot of girls around here like the challenge of pole vaulting," Faiella said. "I don't know if it's the novelty of it or whether they're just daredevils. But I've seen girls who should probably be cross country runners, and they want to do the pole vault."

Hewitt will tell you she likes the pole vault because she's a "risk-taker." Think of it. In the pole vault, you try to use a stick to flip you over a bar that is higher than a basketball hoop. High school athletes have missed the pit and died in the event.

"Some people say you have to be a little crazy," Hewitt said. "But with me, I like sports that are more difficult. I like the dangerous sports."




Pam Panchack, Post-Gazette
Butler High School's Kendall Butch attempts to clear 10 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault in a meet Tuesday against North Hills.
Click photo for larger image.

Hewitt decided to try the pole vault in seventh grade at the request of her father, Tim. He was a pole vaulter at Latrobe decades ago.

"He knew you needed speed, athletic ability and strength. He thought I had that," Hewitt said.

Now Hewitt has her father beat.

"His best was 12-6. I've already gone past that," Hewitt said.

Butch never tried the pole vault until a year ago. But she only did it because a knee injury kept her from competing in gymnastics. She was a standout gymnast and was dedicated to the sport, practicing or competing six days a week. Practices usually lasted four hours.

Besides the knee injury, Butch also outgrew gymnastics.

"I'm 5-6 or 5-7. That's too tall for gymnastics," she said. "One of my gymnastics teammates did the pole vault and had some success, so I figured I'd give it a shot and see if I could have some success."

But Butch had a humble beginning. She didn't compete in Butler's first few meets last year.

"I think I could only do 6 feet or 6-6 at first," she said.

By the end of last season, Butch finished fourth at the WPIAL Class AAA championships and Hewitt fifth.

But Hewitt and Butch also are strong in other events. This spring, Hewitt has the second-best long jump (17-6 3/4) in WPIAL Class AAA, the third-best 200-meter time (26.2 seconds) and the third-best 400 (1:00.5).

Butch has the second-best triple jump (35-7 1/2) and is tied for the fourth-best high jump (5-2).

But the pole vault is their No. 1 event. The two know each other and are friends. They attended a pole vault camp together last summer.

"What's going to be nice is they are both in Triple-A, and they should drive each other," Faiella said. "Because there are two of them, they know they can't relax."

Hewitt and Butch might meet at the Baldwin Invitational next month.

"It's good to have competition," Hewitt said. "It makes each of us try to get a higher height."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05153/513790.stm

PG East: Latrobe's Hewitt soars to girls' pole vault crown

Thursday, June 02, 2005

By Colin Dunlap, Tri-State Sports & News Service

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. -- That gleaming gold medallion around her neck wasn't a bad consolation prize.

For Caitlin Hewitt, the PIAA Class AAA girls' pole vault competition at Shippensburg University's Seth Grove Stadium wasn't a showcase of the heights she can reach. What it was, though, was a gold-medal-winning performance.

Hewitt, a junior, bested the field and took first place in the pole vault by clearing a height of 11 feet, 9 inches. She routinely clears 12 feet at dual meets and broke a meet record at the WPIAL championships last month, clearing 12-7.

So, although she won a PIAA gold medal, she wasn't totally satisfied with her performance.

"If I hadn't won, I wouldn't have been happy," Hewitt said. "But after thinking about it I realized that winning a gold medal at the state level is the ultimate prize in high school. Regardless of how I jumped I was still able to get a gold medal and I'm happy about that. I'm just not all that happy with my performance.

"But, getting a medal even after you don't have your best day is something that is rewarding."

Hewitt was aided by a no-height from Easton junior Lindsay Regan, the defending PIAA champion. Regan cleared 13-6 at the District 11 meet and is one of the top pole vaulters in the high school ranks in the country. Regan waited until 11-6 to enter the competition and failed in all three attempts.

While Regan might have set her opening height a little too high, Hewitt was quick to point out that there were other, more overriding, factors in Regan's demise.

"I don't think it was a mistake on her part as far as selecting a height," Hewitt said. "I think she was having more of an issue with getting her pole into the pit. I don't know if she was using a pole that was too big or what it was, but I think she was just a little off.

"A lot of people have said that they think it was the height she selected, but I don't think it had anything to do with that. I think her approach was just a little off."

But what wasn't off was the effort turned in by the Latrobe contingent at the PIAA meet. In addition to her pole vault gold, Hewitt took seventh in the long jump at 17-9 1/2. Also, the Latrobe boys' 400-meter relay team earned a silver medal (42.92) and senior thrower Ryan Miller took home silver in the discus (171-01).

"It was really exciting having a lot of us from Latrobe do well," Hewitt said. "Everyone is so supportive and when you see people on your team doing well, it encourages you a little more. Ryan [Miller] won a silver and we had our relay team win a silver and I think that shows that our program has come a long way from just a few years ago when we'd only have one or maybe two people qualify for the [PIAA] meet and would hardly ever win a medal."

While the PIAA championship was the pinnacle of this high school season Hewitt's vaulting is far from done.

Later this month, she is scheduled to compete at the prestigious Golden West Invitational in California, bringing together many of the top talents from around the country. Hewitt, who has a grade point average in excess of 4.0 and scored 1,340 on her SAT exam, is looking at schools such as Princeton, Duke and Virginia.

"I don't know everyone who is going to be there [at the Golden West], but I know there will be a strong field," Hewitt said.

"There will be girls around 13 and 14 feet and I'm excited about it because school is ending and I will have time to practice and get ready for the meet. I look at it as a great opportunity to go against some of the best girls in the country and show what I can do against a very good field."PIAA TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS

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Hewitt, who won the Class AAA pole vault title last spring, said winning a gold medal as a team is a lot more fun.

"It's a greater thing that we can all be happy together," said Hewitt, who was tripped 20 yards from the finish line. "It's greater glory and a lot more fun to celebrate."

Hewitt said the seniors have been building towards this title since they were freshman.

"It was amazing to see how our times have changed since our freshman year," Hewitt said. "Some of us improved our times by as much as two minutes from our freshman season. It was shocking to see what training can do for you."

Hewitt, who scraped her knee during the fall, said she first thought the fall caused her team the title. But she knew she had to recover and finish the race.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailyco ... 50372.html

Latrobe (9-2) finished second in Section 1 to Norwin. But the Wildcats competed most of the season without returning state pole vault champion Caitlin Hewitt, who was out with an injury.

Hewitt returned to competition in a limited capacity, which ended up helping Latrobe. She won the pole vault and placed second overall in the long jump.

"Caitlin coming back certainly helps," Wnek said. "But everybody stepped up. It was a total team effort."