NCAA Men - Skipper 5.50

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http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/ ... ion=sports

Skipper passes Pre
By Curtis Anderson
The Register-Guard
Published: Saturday, June 9, 2007
SACRAMENTO - Tommy Skipper only needed one jump to become Oregon's first five-time NCAA champion on Friday.
The incomparable UO senior cleared 18 feet, one-half inch on his opening height in the pole vault, and when the other two vaulters still alive in the competition couldn't match that effort, he was declared the winner at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Skipper wanted to give the announced crowd of 8,151 at Hornet Stadium a few more clearances to savor, but he missed all three attempts at 18-4 1/2 .
"I was actually pretty disappointed with the results," said Skipper, who collected his third outdoor title to go along with two indoor crowns. "I would have liked to have gone out a little better, but you can't dwell on it. I'll move on and do better at the next meet."
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Coming into the NCAAs, Skipper and legendary distance runner Steve Prefontaine were the only two Ducks with four national titles. Pre collected a trio of 3-mile victories at the meet in 1970, '71 and '73, plus a 5,000-meter crown in '72.
Skipper did not take the accomplishment lightly.
"I'm honored," he said. "I'm thankful for all the things that have happened to me at Oregon. ... I know it will be a great steppingstone to the next level, and hopefully, I can always come back to Hayward Field, and have the fans there, and hear the roar."
Skipper's immediate plans are to prepare for the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis in two weeks.
He continues to recover from a torn calf muscle suffered last February, and he said he would most likely sign with an agent within the next two weeks, a decision that will determine where he will set up his training base heading into the Olympic Trials.
"Talk to me in two weeks, and I'll tell you," Skipper said. "I do intend to come back and finish school next year by taking some online classes. I've had a good run at the UO, and I'm ready to go on. I want to thank all the staff at Oregon, everybody has been very gracious to me, and the coaches have always been behind me."
Vin Lananna, the UO director of track and field, had no doubt that the future is very bright for the Pac-10 outdoor and UO record-holder in the pole vault at 19- 1/4 .
"How can you not like Tommy Skipper?" he said. "He's got it all. He's a phenomenal athlete and a phenomenal personality. He has done a tremendous amount for the University of Oregon, and I also believe the university has done some great stuff for him. We've both benefited, and I hope that everything he wants to do, he does."
Remarkably, Oregon's work at the NCAA meet is now done, at least on the men's side.

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http://newsok.com/article/3064425

OU's Heuser finishes third in pole vault

From Staff Reports
The Oklahoman
SACRAMENTO, Calif. â€â€

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http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbc ... 002/SPORTS

field
Curtis, Heuser are runners-up at NCAA meet
From Special Dispatches


A pair of St. Xavier High School products -- distance runner Bobby Curtis of Villanova and pole vaulter Chip Heuser of Oklahoma -- picked up runner-up finishes last night at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif.

Heuser took second in the men's pole vault by clearing 17 feet, 10 1/2 inches. Winner Thomas Skipper cleared 18 feet and a half-inch.

Indiana University's Blayne Burkholder cleared no heights in the 16-man pole vault.

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http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles ... 01roth.txt

Roth passes NCAA tests

Granite Bay grad reaches finals at championship meet
By: Austin Meek, The Press-Tribune
Friday, June 8, 2007

<Previous (Photo 1 of 2) Next>

photos by robert wallingford/special to THE PRESS-TRIBUNE University of Washington freshman Scott Roth vaults with the big boys at the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento.
SACRAMENTO - A year ago, Scott Roth was just a spectator at the NCAA Outdoor championships.

He was a senior at Granite Bay High and a three-time state champion in the pole vault, preparing for his freshman year at the University of Washington. As he watched the best collegiate athletes in the nation competing under the lights of the Spanos Sports Complex, Roth set a goal for himself.

Next time, he thought, I won't be a spectator.

And when Roth sets a goal, well, nobody in their right mind is going to bet against him. In addition to his three championships, Roth broke a 27-year-old state record, placed first in the Nike Indoor and Outdoor nationals and won a silver medal in the World Youth Championships in Morocco.

So it should come as no surprise that Roth arrived at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor championships with pole in hand, ready to compete for a national title.


"I figured at the rate I was going that I'd be good enough by the time I was a freshman in college to be here," Roth said. "It was a goal of mine to make it as a freshman, and I did."

However, Roth's ambitions didn't stop there. He wasn't content just to qualify for the NCAA championships - he wanted a spot in the finals, which were held late Friday night.

The freshman pole vaulter achieved that goal as well, clearing a height of 16 feet, 10 ¾ inches in Wednesday's preliminaries.

It wasn't easy, though. Roth came up short on his first two attempts before clearing the bar on his third try.

Although he joked afterward that he was simply trying to build suspense, Roth admitted the preliminary round didn't go exactly as planned.

"Ideally I'd like to make it on my first attempt and not risk it," Roth said. "Third attempts are scary because it's your last try. That last jump was either make it and go on to the finals, or miss it and don't."

If Roth was feeling the pressure, he didn't show it, clearing the bar easily on the third attempt. After meeting with his coach, he discovered a flaw in his technique that he planned to correct before Friday's finals. "I was tucking my knees in when I was going over the bar," Roth said. "That's a bad thing to do, because you can be way over and still miss it because you tucked your knees. So I've got to remember not to do that."

The finals pitted Roth against a Pacific-10 Conference rival, Oregon senior Tommy Skipper. Roth finished second to Skipper at the Pac-10 championship and the regional meet.

Despite the budding rivalry, Roth said he considers Skipper an "encouragement" and always roots for him to do well.

"It'd be really easy for a guy like that who is just way above everyone else to be conceited, but he's not at all," Roth said of Skipper, who posted a mark of 19-0 ¾ at the regional meet. "He's a very humble guy."

Roth, whose best outdoor clearance stands at 17-10 ¾, did have one advantage heading into the finals: a cheering section.


"I've got a lot of people coming to watch me," Roth said. "I've had a lot of fans here clapping for me, which is cool. It gets you going a little bit."

One of those fans is Curt Roth, Scott's dad. Curt, a former pole vaulter at Sacramento State, coached Scott since he started vaulting. After devoting countless hours to training and preparation, Curt said it's gratifying to watch his son excel at the college level.

"They do these stories at the beginning of the Olympic trials about the parents who invest a lot of money and time and it's a huge part of life," he said. "I used to think that had to have been a stretch. Now I've been through it, and it's all of what they said."

While Skipper went into Friday's finals as the heavy favorite - "Unless he falls on his face, he's going to win," Curt said Thursday - the significance of competing in the NCAA finals as a freshman isn't lost on Scott or his father. "It's a little bit gratifying because all those guys are bigger and older and stronger," Curt said. "He still has room to grow."

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http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ar ... 20rudy.txt

MSU track: Rudy fourth in NCAA pole vault

By HOWIE STALWICK Special to the Chronicle

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Ellie Rudy plans to go into medicine after graduating from Montana State, but she's undecided on a specific field.


AP MSU's Ellie Rudy clears the bar at 13 feet, 7 1/4 inches to take fourth place in the finals of the women's pole vault Friday. Judging from the manner in which Rudy carved herself up after finishing “onlyâ€Â

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YES CHIP HEUSER finishes 2nd! Just to let everyone know he is a good ol Kentucky boy, congrats Chip.