Nebraska pole vaulting gets boost from Grand Island alumi

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NU pole vaulting roster gets boost from Grand Island alumi
By: Jordan Pascale

Issue date: 12/7/06 Section: Sports


With three standout pole vaulters from Grand Island, it's legitimate to wonder what they put in the water in central Nebraska.

But pole vaulting coach Kris Grimes begs to differ.

"Pole vaulters come in bunches," Grimes said. "It takes a great group of people to train pole vaulters, and most coaches aren't willing to take the risk. But they have coaches with a passion for pole vault in Grand Island."

Grand Islanders Gable Baldwin, Sam Ogden, and Jenny Green lead what looks to be a very deep and talented pool of pole vaulters for the 2007 track and field season.

With last year's vaulters exceeding Grimes' expectations, the bar is getting raised a little higher this year, literally.

"As a team we set goals for each event on how many points we want to score in meets," Grimes said. "Our goal for the vaulters is to have everyone score something. I don't want to come off sounding cocky, but we have a lot of confidence right now because of last year's performance."

The men's team returns senior Gable Baldwin, a 2005 indoor All-American and 2005 outdoor Big 12 Champion; senior Nic Petersen; and redshirt freshman Sam Ogden, who was a two time all-class gold medal winner in high school and tied Baldwin's high school pole vault record at 16-0.

Grimes said Ogden turned heads this summer at the USA Junior Events where he was jumping even better than he was in high school.

"The off season has helped Sam a lot," Grimes said. "He's been training hard and working on the technical fundamentals, basically learning the event and getting a better feel for the college level of competition."

After Ogden's redshirt season, he feels that he has adjusted well to the college level of competition.

"I didn't work out very hard in high school, and I learned real quick that the workouts here are a lot tougher," Ogden said. "I've been working on my running approach technique and planting the pole a lot since high school."

Somehow, the talent just keeps rolling in. Last year, both of the Grand Islanders' high school records were beaten by an incoming freshman from Beatrice. Seth Burney topped the old 16-0 record with a 16-1/4 mark.

With returning veterans and young and upcoming members, the men's pole vaulting team's future looks bright.

For the women's team, things look equally promising. Sophomore All-American Brysun Stately, a transfer student from the University of Southern California, joins junior three-time All-American Jenny Green.

Stately was California's state high school pole vaulting champion and holds a personal best of 13-6.

Green, the third Grand Islander, holds both women's indoor and outdoor pole vaulting records at Nebraska with marks of 13-9 1/4 indoors and 13-11 1/4 outdoors.

Baldwin, Ogden, Petersen, Burney, Stately and Green will get a chance to get back to competition Friday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center at the intrasquad women vs. men meet.

"Everyone has been training hard, and everyone has a lot of pride right now," Grimes said. "We are gonna give it a go and look at our progress in preseason competition."

As for the upcoming season, which begins at home with the Holiday Inn Invitational on Jan. 12, Grimes is looking forward to seeing how the pole vaulters can contribute to the team.

"It's a team scoring competition, and if the vaulters don't do well, the team doesn't do well," Grimes said. "We have to do our part, plain and simple."