Nick Ragusa article

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Ragusa vaulting 'Birds to new heights
Alice Riddle

Issue date: 1/25/07 Section: Sports
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Media Credit: Jamey Davidsmeyer

ISU Track and Field Head Coach Elvis Forde says freshman pole vaulter Nick Ragusa's event of choice takes a little bit more guts than those of other athletes.

"You always have to say to the men in pole vault that you have to be a little crazy, and I really believe that. You put yourself upside down on a fiberglass pole that you don't know when it's going to snap and you see if it's pretty much going to endure."

For Nick, however, it's all in the family. His older brother Matt competes as a pole vaulter for the track team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Nick said that he has been pole vaulting since his freshman year of high school, following in the footsteps of his brother.

"Matt started it first, then I picked up into it. It's just something and we've always stuck with it. We're not afraid of it, we're not worried and we know you can always get hurt, but we love to jump so much that it outweighs that," Nick said.

"I talk to him quite often, especially after meets. We call to compare each other's heights and see who did better."

When Matt and Nick first got involved with pole vaulting, their parents were reluctant about letting their sons participate in such a nerve-wracking event.

"At first, they didn't understand what it was. We both had braces, and my dad said 'That's too dangerous; I don't want you to mess up your teeth,'" Nick said.

Although years of watching them has eased some of the anxiety, his mother continues to worry a little.

"My mom will always be nervous. Even if we're not jumping, and she's watching it, she'll be nervous for the person who is jumping. My dad just likes that we're college athletes and stuff."

After an impressive career of pole vaulting at Neuqua Valley High School, which included an all-state selection his senior year, Nick almost ended up competing with Matt at Illinois, but his educational and athletic goals coincided better with ISU.

"I actually waited up until three days before the application was due for Illinois State because I was waiting to get into [Illinois]," Nick said. "Then my brothers really talked to me about it, and we decided that it was better to go here. If I were to go to U of I, chances were I may not be on the track team because they have overcrowding issues. We decided I'd come here and definitely be able to jump."

"I wanted to become a physical education major and this is one of the best schools [for teacher education]. I even talked to the head of the department at Neuqua, Dave Perry, and he went here and recommended it, so that was another deciding factor there, too."

His choice to come to ISU has already paid off after finishing second in a dual meet two weeks ago at Indiana State.

While chronic shin splints have been bothering Nick this season, he refuses to let them interfere with his jumping.

"When it comes down to the meet, when you have so much adrenaline pumping through you, you don't really feel as much as what you do normally," Nick said. "It's different for practice because at practice, you don't have that adrenaline, you'll feel everything, you're like 'Man, I just feel like garbage.' But you go to a meet, you feel great. It's the next day after the meet that you just feel like you've been hit by a truck because you just start feeling everything."

"When it comes down to it, I'll be there. The only thing that would stop me, I think, is if I broke something, but that's only until it healed, then I'd be back."

Forde acknowledges that the Missouri Valley Conference is loaded with skilled pole vaulters, but he said he thinks Nick is up for the challenge.

"Our conference is very difficult with the pole vault because we have at least five or six guys at other schools that are jumping much higher than Nick, so as a freshman, he knows he's got his work cut out, but I think he's going to work hard to get up there," Forde said.

"He works hard and I think those are the things that you need in order to be a pole vaulter, plus, that little craziness that you have to have. I think that he has those traits and that'll help tremendously."