5.37m at the Pole Vault Summit...

Height: 5.37m or 17' 7.25"
Approach: 18 steps
Pole: 5m - 14.5
Place: 3rd

Boy did I get dominated by Brad Walker... haha. That was such a fun competition last night though! Nine of the country's best vaulters competing in front of 1500 pole vault fanatics... you just can't beat that. The energy in the arena was unreal and it got LOUD. My jumping didn't amount to the hype I tried to create on my last post, but man am I close to doing some big things! I opened up at 5.22m/17'1.5" and blew over it on the first attempt. Then I cleared 5.37m/17'7.25" on my first attempt but almost brushed it on the way down. Luckily I didn't touch it very hard and it stayed up, because the height was definitely there. Then the bar goes to 5.52m/18'1.25" and I started doing things a little too good... I started running faster than I ever have. They had "timing gates" that measured our velocity at the last 10 meters from take-off on every jump. I'm not sure how accurate they are so I'll refrain from telling you the speed they recorded until I get a further in-depth analysis from our biomechanist later today. But I was smokin! My legs can vouch for that fact today as they are extremely tired and sore. So I missed all three of my attempts at 5.52m and that was that. I ended up with 3rd place again this year and not nearly as high as I wanted, but that's all a part of the game. My time will come and I must be patient with the bars and urgent with my training and skill. Brad had an amazing night last night from my perspective. He cleared 5.80m/19'0.25" by a foot but didn't quite get 5.91m/19'4.75". He knows he could've had that bar with any of his other jumps but it just didn't happen last night. He's looking really good and I couldn't be more excited to get to jump with him and have him bring me up to his level. It is amazing for American pole vaulting what he did last night. To open up the season in January with 5.80m is impressive to say the least, but its a big year for everyone this year with the Olympics coming up and him jumping so well is only going to bring the rest of us up with him! I'm so stoked for the future of American vaulting and my own career as well. I have big goals for this season and I hope you all get to watch me accomplish them ;) Onward and Upward!