Loren Duvall Article

[rainbowgirl28]

There's a pretty cool picture if you click on the link

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2004/05/04/ ... news01.txt

Heading over the top
By Ben Zimmerman
May 04, 2004 - 08:09:40 am PDT

When Loren DuVall was in fourth grade, it snowed. There was a steep hill perfect for inner-tubing behind his house, with bumpy terrain that provided opportunities to catch some air.

DuVall piled extra snow on one of the bumps, hopped onto his tube and launched himself down the hill.


He crashed through sticker bushes and ended up dangling head-first from a tree.

"My little brother was freaking out," DuVall remembers. "I loved it."

Eight years later, DuVall has transformed that wild streak with hard work, commitment, gymnastics, weight training ---- plus a little common sense ---- into the best high school pole-vaulting ability in the state.

The Mark Morris senior is still a thrill-seeker. Only now, he gets his kicks by building to a full sprint along a 100-foot runway, planting a 4-pound, 15-foot fiberglass-and-carbon pole into a concretized, box-shaped hole in the ground, and catapulting toes-first over a crossbar sitting higher than the top of a basketball backboard.

It is not a sport for the timid.

"Loren is agile. He's fast. He's strong. He's coordinated. He has the confidence and physical tools to be a great vaulter," said DuVall's vault coach, Bill Baker. "Pole vaulting is a very safe event, but you definitely cannot be afraid."

In that regard, DuVall has been qualified since at least the fourth grade.

"My dad says I was always fearless," said DuVall. "I've always liked seeing how far my athleticism would take me."

Last Tuesday, it took him to the top of the school record book and state leaderboard.

DuVall cleared 15 feet, 4 inches to win the pole vault as Mark Morris snapped the Kelso boys' 13-year, 86-meet dual winning streak. DuVall broke his own school record of 15-2 1/2. The vault stands today as the best in Washington regardless of classification, 1 inch higher than Class 4A vaulter Mike Uhlenkott of North Central High in Spokane.

DuVall has his eyes on loftier prizes. He'd like to boost his personal best toward 16 feet. That would tie him for fourth nationally among prep vaulters.

A 16-9 vault would tie him for No. 1 in the country.

Anything better than 18-3 would break the national record.

A vault of that altitude would also put DuVall in contention for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

"That's a goal, definitely," said DuVall, who competes in the summer with the Willamette Striders Track Club out of Oregon City. "I train with elite vaulters, college athletes, national record-holders. Some of the guys are already training for the Olympics. You need to vault 18 feet to qualify for the Olympic Trials, and the top three go to Athens."

If DuVall realizes his ultimate dream, he can look back at crucial decisions made four years ago.

Goodbye hoops

DuVall was one of the top scorers on the Mark Morris freshman basketball team four years ago, but wondered about his playing time down the road with the talent-rich Monarchs.

"There were a lot of good players," DuVall said. "I started to see the reality."

As an eighth-grader at Cascade Middle School, DuVall had been intrigued by the feats of Bo Fisher, who was then the MM record-holder in the pole vault. Watching Fisher, said DuVall, was the beginning of his fascination with the event.

"He jumped so high," DuVall said. "It looked pretty technical, pretty complicated. It looked interesting."

DuVall decided after his freshman year to set aside basketball and begin dedicating his summers to pole vaulting. Today, he wonders how high he'd be vaulting if that decision had come one year earlier. If he had spent one extra summer driving two hours round-trip, four days a week, eight hours a day, training with the Striders.

Seventeen feet?

"It's possible," said DuVall.

When DuVall made a commitment to pole vaulting, it was full-time, Baker said.

"He became extremely focused," said Baker. "I could only coach him through August. He asked what he could do."

Baker hooked DuVall up with the Striders, and DuVall's improvement was exponential.

"He's been training seriously ever since," Baker said. "He has really worked on his approach. He has better acceleration. He has a nice, long left leg kick and a good swing that loads the pole with power and gives him a good return at the top of the vault."

The perfect vault

Baker has watched DuVall grow, physically and technically, into an elite vaulter. He points to a more subtle evolution as the key factor in DuVall's rise.

"He's matured so much as a vaulter," said Baker. "Every time you run down the lane toward a vault, you are squishing life into a short moment in time. You set a goal. You take off. Sometimes you raise the standard, but usually, on your last vault, you fail. And like life, you get another try. Loren has really come to understand that."

That perspective, that maturity, is the intangible trait driving DuVall's achievements. Baker and head track coach John Sapinsky have found DuVall to be an excellent coach in his own right. On days when DuVall rests in preparation for a meet, he shows up to practice and tutors other vaulters.

"He's turned into an expert," said Sapinsky.

DuVall has also stepped in to run relays at various meets, freeing teammates to compete ---- and earn points ---- in other events.

"Running in relays benefits (Loren) and the team," said Baker. "It shows school spirit, and it makes him faster."

"He gives us flexibility for other relays," Sapinsky added. "Track meets are like chess games in that regard."

DuVall complements his maturity and selflessness with nitty-gritty stuff. Constant weight training, high-bar work including "giants" (360-degree swings around the bar, which help with coordination, balance and timing), and speed work complete the formula for a state championship vault.

The finished product looks something like this:

"You need an aggressive run," said DuVall. "You need fluent strides that hit every mark. The plant needs to be as high in the box as possible. When the pole slides in and makes contact, you jump. The right knee goes up. The trail (left) leg follows, and both legs swing up until the body is vertical. As the pole uncoils, you turn and shoot over the bar. Then you let go of the pole and hollow out over the crossbar."

Hopefully landing in the center of the mat.

"Loren vaults deep," said Baker. "He always lands safely, square in the middle."

This summer, when he snapped a pole into four pieces, DuVall said it sounded "like shotgun."

"It was kind of cool," he said.

Raising the bar

The University of Washington has produced some of the nation's best vaulters during the past two seasons, and DuVall's college aspirations are leaning in-state, toward either UW or Washington State. If he can reach his senior-season goal of a 16-6 vault, other opportunities could open up.

For now, DuVall is glad to see track and field gaining respect. Part of that is personal.

"People respect you if you've put time and effort into something," he said. "I took second at state last year, and I've seen little signs of respect at meets. Extra time for warm-up. Maybe an extra warm-up jump."

Part of it is team-related.

"We have great athletes at Mark Morris," DuVall said. "Our (400) relay team could break the school record. I think our team is getting more respect, especially after the Kelso meet. We're having a lot of fun. We might be league champs."

DuVall is most concerned with perceptions of track and field at large. He'd like to see it return to its traditional, early-century niche as a "Big Three" sport, along with baseball and football.

"There's so much going on at such a high-caliber level," DuVall said. "The events are so entertaining. I think track and field needs more publicity."

To that end, DuVall is committed to chasing his own records and a state championship. He said he can sense a record-breaking vault on the runway.

"You know it then, as you start your approach," he said. "You know by the presence of the bar as you are heading up. You have to be aware of the bar, but you don't stare at it.

"You look at something higher."

[zack]

He would be the state leader if TJ Emrich hadn't jumped 15-5 last weekend.

[rainbowgirl28]

He's the unofficial state leader with 15-6 indoors