Josh Desens Article (WI)

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http://www.shawanoleader.com/articles/2 ... ports1.txt

Marion's Desens wins pole vault at state

By Aaron Wallender, Leader sports reporter
LA CROSSE -- First, Josh Desens made sure he did his job. Then, he tried to make history.

And while Desens, a senior at Marion, came oh-so-close but didn't quite break the state record he was shooting for, he did blow away the rest of the Division 3 field as he captured the pole vault championship at the WIAA state track meet at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's Veterans Memorial Stadium on Friday afternoon.

Desens cleared all of his attempts up through 14 feet, 6 inches -- which was a full foot higher than D3 runner-up Daniel Drewek of Athens cleared -- and then tried to break the D3 record of 15 feet even by attempting 15-1. But Desens came up just short on all three attempts, as he said he barely brushed the bar on the way down on one attempt, but it was enough to knock the bar down.

"(Winning state was) kind of surprising. It feels good. I didn't have any misses up until 15-1, which is good for me. I was pretty proud of that," Desens said. "I was happy for that, to go out getting first at state. I don't think you can end (your high school career) any better really."

Desens had plenty of fan support as his parents and sister were there, as were his first pole vaulting coach and his family, not to mention other friends and relatives, and those who were there to support him said it was awesome to see Josh win the title.

"It was nerve-wracking (but) once he made the first jump I felt better because last year ... he never even qualified, so this was just fantastic. It was great that he made state champion," said Debbie Desens, Josh's mother.

Literally seconds before Desens was about to start his approach on his first attempt at the state record height, an announcement came over the stadium's public address system for the crowd to direct its attention to the pole vaulting pit, and Desens said that was a little bit distracting on his last vaults.