Libby Fortier Article (MA)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/ar ... spotlight/

Vaulting into the spotlight
Fortier's leap clinches meet for Andover
By Amalie Benjamin, Globe Staff | June 9, 2005
ANDOVER -- His team's victory in last Saturday's All State meet has all but erased Peter Comeau's bad feelings over the handling of the Division 1 track meet the week before. But immediately after the Division 1 meet, Comeau was more than willing last week to express his dissatisfaction.

Coaches and athletes had learned less than a week before the May 28 Division 1 meet that one piece of the competition, pole vaulting, would be shifted from that Saturday at Andover to Monday at Weston. It might make a difference in the final results, they knew. But maybe not.
Turns out, it did.
''All the pole vaulters kind of joked about it -- 'Imagine if it ever came down to pole vault' -- never expecting it to," said Libby Fortier, Andover's fourth-seeded pole vaulter at the Division 1 meet. ''It was kind of ironic that we had laughed about it and it turned out to be exactly as we thought."
May 28 ended with Newton North ahead of the Golden Warriors by a scant two points. The Tigers had the lead, but no pole vaulters. Andover, however, had Fortier.
With her team's finish riding on her performance, Fortier knew a vault of 8 feet 6 inches would win it for the team. It did.
''I feel bad for everybody involved in the pole vault because it's a tough way to have a meet," Comeau said. He said that if Fortier was allowed to compete Saturday she would not have felt the pressure she did pole vaulting Monday.
''It's not fair," Comeau said. " If Libby doesn't vault well, how does she go on with her summer? She let down the 200 girls on our track team. It's her fault. That's not a way to cap your senior year."
Fortunately for Fortier, she had nothing to worry about.
''I wouldn't say it was a panic, but I was so incredibly nervous," said Fortier, who has 12 varsity letters. ''I didn't want to let anyone down. I really, really hoped it would be good enough. . . . I knew that if I didn't fault, that would be a good sign. If I vaulted 8-6, I knew I had a pretty good shot at placing in the top four. I was just really excited. Coach Comeau came up to me and gave me a big hug and thanked me for handling the pressure well.
''Most of the time the pole vaulters don't matter too much, and everyone thinks of it as a joke. It was nice to make a difference."
While three points would have given Andover the title, Fortier's six-point third-place finish won the crown with room to spare, 69-65. And there was absolutely nothing Newton North could do about it.
The problem with the pole vaulting equipment at Andover was it doesn't allow for a bend of the poles of more than 45 degrees on takeoff. It's not a common issue. It's not something that would usually come up.
''It's old-style and not the recommended style," said Kevin Uniacke, the Division 1 track and field tournament director. ''Normally that is not a problem with most of the jumpers. I was made aware of the potential situation by other officials. There was at least one and maybe two competitors who bend the pole enough that they might bend the tip and hit the pit."
Weston's equipment erased the problem. That was why about 40 people shuffled over to the high school on May 30 to find out the two-days-late results.
But with the meet decided during the pole vaulting, the other Andover performances were obscured, Comeau argued. Like the 4 x 100 relay. The eight points that resulted from a second-place finish by a recently rearranged team at the Division 1 meet were a surprise, and crucial, as it turned out. In a race in which first and third were separated by .07 second, Andover broke 50 seconds for the first time this year, recording a 49.35. (The relay team ran a 48.68 race in the All State meet, beating the meet record.)
''It just so happened it was pole vault," said Meaghan Keefe, who came in first in the 100-meter hurdles and fifth in the long jump in the Division 1 meet. ''It could have been any event. It could have been the two-mile. And then all the pressure would have been on someone else."
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.