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http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles ... review.txt

Opening The Vault
Roth looks like money at weekend state meet

By: Bruce Burton, The Press-Tribune
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 6:02 PM PDT


Granite Bay High junior Scott Roth has turned the high school pole vault record book upside down this season. pico van houtryve/ THE PRESS-TRIBUNE
Here's a riddle: If records are broken but the record player won't stop

playing, what should you do?

A) Go buy an I-Pod?

B) Form a band and make your

own music?

C) Quit player hatin' and go watch Granite Bay High's Scott Roth rip it up

at this week's CIF State Track and

Field meet?

The answer, of course, is "C" Roth - the record player when it comes to the boys pole vault - will be one of the main attractions when the high school track and field season's grand finale takes place Friday and Saturday at Hughes Stadium. The Grizzlies' junior set a national record for 16-year-olds at Hughes last week during the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet by clearing 17 feet, 2 inches, and could have something even bigger in store when California's best try to wrestle the state crown away from him this week.

Roth won't be alone at the CIF meet; his Grizzlies running mate Ryan Shuler, the 2003 pole vault state champion, will compete as well after finishing second to Roth at the Masters Meet.

But they are the only local athletes in the competition, which begins with the boys pole vault qualifying Friday at 2 p.m. The boys pole vault final also kicks off Saturday's proceedings at 3 p.m.

Other than Shuler, who handed Roth his only loss of the season two weeks ago at the Division I Section Meet, the main competition appears to come from Southern California.

Jeff Cover of La Jolla Country Day in the San Diego Section qualified with a best of 16-4, a height equal to Roth's winning state-meet vault of a year ago. And junior Gregory Woepse of Mater Dei in Santa Ana qualified at 16-0.

No one else in the meet, however, has come close to topping 17 feet, which Roth has done twice this year.

"There are five guys in the state over 16-0, including (Roth) and Ryan," said Curtis Roth, Scott's father and main coach. "One guy (Derek Scott of El Camino-Oceanside) went 16-8, but he tore his (anterior cruciate ligament)."

Translation: If Roth vaults to his capabilities and no one else has a career day, he could defend his crown easily. But that's a big if; as Roth learned at the section meet, the pole vault is a notoriously fickle event that can stymie the best of them.


The most famous example is that of world record holder Sergey Bubka of the Ukraine, who won gold at the 1988 Olympics but failed to clear a height as the favorite four years later.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/st ... 9281c.html

Roth breaks meet record to claim his second title
By Jason Jones -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, June 5, 2005

Scott Roth is vaulting his way to heartthrob status, whether he likes it or not.
As Roth continues to clear 17 feet in the pole vault, autograph seekers hunt him down because spectators are "in love with him," as one young lady said Saturday, waiting for the Granite Bay High School junior to sign his name on two sheets of paper she was holding.




In some ways, it's surreal to Roth, but his fame figures to continue growing, especially if he keeps dominating the pole vault.
Roth won his second straight state pole vault title by breaking the meet record with a 17-foot, 1-inch mark at the 87th CIF State Track and Field Championships at Hughes Stadium.

The previous record of 17-0 1/2, set by Crespi of Encino's Anthony Curran, had stood since 1978 and was the second-oldest boys mark behind the 200-meter standard, which was posted in 1977.

Roth missed on three attempts at 17-8 1/4, which would have broken the national junior record. But that didn't quell the fan support Roth received as he easily cleared each height before that.

However, even as girls smiled as they passed by and others offered congratulations, Roth wasn't playing the prima donna role.

"I feel like I'm not quite good for that yet, but it's cool to get that kind of attention," Roth said.

Nevertheless, Roth is earning the praise. He's still the national leader with a career-best 17-2 at last week's Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet, and next Sunday, he will set his sights on another record-breaking mark when he participates in the Golden West Invitational at Folsom High.

Roth's father and coach, Curt Roth, likes that his son hasn't grasped what he's doing.

"I don't really want it to hit him," Curt Roth said. "I want him to think that's the way it is."

And as of right now, Roth ruling the pole vault is how it is, and how it could be for a while.

Granite Bay junior Ryan Shuler cleared 16 feet and finished fourth in the pole vault.

http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles ... 03roth.txt

In a class by himself
Roth posts sub-17; still wins Golden West

By: Bruce Burton, The Press-Tribune
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 5:54 PM PDT


Granite Bay's Scott Roth added the Golden West Invitational title to his list of 2005 accomplishments. Press-Tribune File Photo
He keeps on winning. But for the first time in awhile in a big meet, Scott Roth didn't vault 17 feet.

So sue him.

The Granite Bay High junior has literally raised the bar so high at the high school level in the pole vault that it's come to the point where his victory Sunday in the evening session of the Golden West Invitational at Folsom High, where he vaulted 16-feet, 10-inches, was almost a foregone conclusion.

The mystery now is how high will he go before his summer schedule ends.

If all goes as planned, Roth will have at least another month left to answer that query.

At present, he has already taken on most of the best high school vaulters that the Sac-Joaquin Section, the state and the nation has to offer, and defeated them all.

Sunday's field once again included Roth's Granite Bay teammate Ryan Shuler, who was fifth at 16-1, and a few of the other vaulters who completed in the recent CIF State Meet.

In fact, the top three - Roth, Jeff Coover of La Jolla (16-6, fewer misses), and Scott Finley of Granite Hills High in San Diego (16-6) - finished in the same order at state.

Also present was sophomore Spencer McCorkel of Bryant, Ark., whose 17-0 vault earlier this year briefly gave him the national lead over Roth.

But McCorkel struggled Sunday and finished ninth in the 13-person field with a best vault of 15-0.

Roth wasn't the only Granite Bay pole vaulter to win at the Golden West.

Junior Stephanie Bagan took the girls afternoon session with a best of 12-1, winning on fewer misses over Whitney Cothren of Arkansas, who also vaulted 12-1.

Brysun Stately of Cordova, the CIF State Meet champion, won the girls evening vault session.

Here's an article I missed at the time...


http://www.sacbee.com/content/community ... 7270c.html

Going higher and farther
Pole vaulter Roth sets a personal best in a world meet in Morocco
By Bill Paterson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, July 28, 2005
Story appeared in El dorado folsom rancho cordova section, Page H8

If Scott Roth is destined to be an Olympic athlete, his mettle already is being pedaled.
The Granite Bay High School senior, the nation's best male youth pole vaulter, is testing the physical demands that come with being an elite athlete having to perform under the most stressful of conditions.

Two weeks ago, Roth was halfway around the world in exotic Marrakech, Morocco, competing in the International Association of Athletics Federations World Youth Track and Field Championships.



Coming face to face for the first time with most of the world's best 17-year-old pole vaulters, Roth won the silver medal for the USA team, losing to China's Yansheng Yang because of more misses. Roth jumped a personal best of 17 feet, 2 3/4 inches, the same height as Yang.
This week he is in Indianapolis for the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics. Roth will finish his season Aug. 4-5 at the Street Vault, which brings together some of America's finest pole vaulters, young and old, in Clovis.

Roth has been competing since January's Vault Summit in Reno, then winning his second CIF state championship with a meet record of 17-1, the Golden West Invitational and the Nike Outdoor National Championships, all in June.

Among vaulters his age, he has five of the world's 10 best marks in 2005.

So, he's ready for a rest.

"I can hang on for another week or two," Roth said July 19, a day after flying home from Morocco to New York to San Francisco before the drive back to Placer County. "But a break does sound good."

Roth knows that if he wants to be an elite athlete, he must adjust to life as a frequent flier.

"The travel is what really wipes you out," he said. "Competing is the fun part."

Getting to the pole vault pit in Marrakech proved joyless.

He and Curt Roth, his coach/father, arrived several days before the start of the competition, but Scott's poles didn't show up until just before the competition because of a bureaucratic snafu. Scott Roth never got to practice.

Which is probably a good thing, considering Roth wound up with a 102-degree fever for a few days - a victim of "Turista." He lost five pounds.

"We went there early because we knew people get sick," Scott Roth said. "We figured if that happened, we'd have enough time to recover and be able to compete."

Said Curt Roth: "It was a nightmare for a while. Scotty gets sick, the poles don't show up until a day and a half before the competition. It was a lot of stress and a lot of work and a lot of money, and we're wondering if it's all worth it."

In the end it was. Roth had the top mark at the trials, then engaged China's best youth pole vaulter in a battle of wills.

When Yang successfully jumped at 5 meters, Curt Roth had his son wait to jump at 5.05. Meanwhile, a couple of other favorites, Spain's Albert Velez and Poland's Lukasz Michalski, failed to keep pace.

"There's a lot of psychology in vaulting," said Curt Roth, who competed in college for Sacramento State. "By clearing the next height, that gave Scotty the lead."

But when Yang made 5.15 on his first vault, Roth missed. He made the second attempt. When Yang made his first vault at 5.25 and Roth missed at the same height, Roth knew he was in trouble.

Even though he hit a personal best on the second vault, he was going for the win at 17-4 1/2. Yang had cleared the height earlier in the season but missed all three times in the Morocco meet. Roth also missed in his three attempts, but Dad said his son came much closer to Yang in almost clearing the bar twice.

"Scotty got over on the first, but his armpit brushed the bar," Curt said. "On the third, he brushed the bar on the way up. If he hadn't positioned his pole so deep in the pit, he might have made it."

At 5-foot-10, Roth was one of the shortest athletes in the vault competition. Curt Roth said Yang is 6-5.

"He has huge physical advantages," Curt Roth said of Yang. "But Scotty is the fastest down the runway and the most technically sound."

Now that he's back on U.S. soil and appreciative of all America has to offer - the USA team was kept under tight security throughout its stay in Morocco - Roth is looking ahead to college. UCLA appears to be a front-runner, but he said he also will give strong consideration to Cal and Stanford.

"I want to sign this September," Roth said. "I'd really like to have it out of the way. That will make my senior year less stressful."

That's relatively speaking for someone already thinking about the World Junior Championships next summer in Beijing.

"Although I got second when I'm used to getting first, it was a really good experience," Roth said. "This was similar to an Olympic experience - traveling to another country, adapting and adjusting to the surroundings.

"With all the team gear, and the way you are treated, you feel like an Olympian. I'm already looking forward to next year."

http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles ... 04roth.txt

Roth narrowly misses national record

By: Bruce Burton, Assistant Sports Editor
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 10:16 AM PST


Granite Bay High senior Scott Roth takes off on his attempt to break the national high school indoor pole vault record. kirby lee/ image of sports
Look out high school pole vaulters.

Scott Roth is back, and he looks better than ever.

Granite Bay High's two-time CIF state champion had already cleared 16 feet, 10 inches at an indoor meet earlier this month when he headed to the Pole Vault Summit in Reno over the weekend. There he nearly broke the indoor high school national record of 17-7 before settling for second place behind Jordan Scott of Georgia.

Roth and Scott both cleared 16-6 - Scott was declared the winner on fewer misses - before taking three tries each at the record. The Grizzlies' senior had plenty of height over the bar on his first try, but bumped it and knocked it off its pegs on the way down.

"I actually had four or five inches over the bar, but I had my standards set too deep," Roth said, referring to the placement of the bar. Had the bar been a few inches forward, he said, he would have cleared the height.

"I brushed it with my armpit and it bounced a little bit. I think I'll get it eventually," he said.

Roth, whose personal best is 17-2½, will have three more chances to break the record, beginning with a meet at his college destination, the University of Washington, next weekend. But his main goal is the outdoor high school record of 18-3.

these guys are crazy! wow, is all i can say and i just wish that i get up around there this year!

All of these article say he is a junior i thought he was a senior this year?

All but the last are from the summer

I may have missed this post on another thread, however:

Roth vaults 17-0/5.18m at a dual meet on Wednesday to open up his outdoor season.