Brian Hancock (Mizzou) hopes to raise bar

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http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Jan ... por003.asp

MU freshman hopes to raise bar

By TROY SCHULTE of the Tribune’s staff
Published Saturday, January 13, 2007
Missouri track Coach Rick McGuire remembers Christian Cantwell’s first collegiate event. He said the former All-American shot putter entered the event wanting to set school, meet and arena records.




Nick King photo
Missouri freshman Brian Hancock, a four-time pole vault state champion at Monroe City High School, attempts a jump of 16 feet, 1 inches at yesterday’s Missouri Invitational. Hancock missed that attempt and finished second.
"Everybody thought he was going to open up with a school record," said McGuire of the January 2000 indoor event. "But he was hardly noticed."

At the Missouri Invitational, MU’s first indoor event of the season, McGuire saw a similar performance from another freshman yesterday. Brian Hancock, a four-time state pole vault champion from Monroe City, entered yesterday’s meet wanting to break his personal indoor best of 16 feet, 6 inches. And he came close.

After waiting anxiously for his event at the Hearnes Center fieldhouse for more than seven hours, Hancock cleared 15-1, 15-4 and 15-7 with relative ease. Then, with only he, teammate Will Drover and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville’s Anthony Weber competing, he attempted 16-1. With what he called his best jump of the day, he easily cleared the bar on the way up but grazed it coming down. He finished in a tie for second place with Weber. Drover, a senior from Camdenton, won the event on a tiebreaker.

"This is a good start to the season," Hancock said. "I think I could have cleared 17-3 with that last jump. That would be a good bar to clear during indoor."

Dan Lefever, an assistant coach in charge of jumps and decathletes, isn’t sure if the jump was that good, but he’s been impressed with Hancock so far. In his last event of the summer season Hancock cleared 16-10, so Lefever doesn’t think Missouri’s indoor record of 17-0¾ is out of reach.

"We’ve never had a freshman come in jumping as high as he is," Lefever said.