PoleVaultPower.com

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/otherspor ... ack14.html

UW's Soma snaps streak of NCAA near-misses

By TED MILLER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

It doesn't seem craven or naive to wince at the idea of a pole vaulter snapping her pole on a jump.

It sounds like a disaster far worse than, say, "being up the creek without a paddle," mostly because the poor soul is 14 feet in the air, upside down and without an apparatus to properly negotiate with humorless gravity.

The "SNAP," according to those who witnessed Kate Soma's tumble at the 2005 NCAA Track and Field Championships over the weekend, sounded much like a gunshot, turning heads all over the complex in Sacramento, Calif.

For Soma, however, it was an unexceptional moment -- she's broken three poles this year -- that only lightly smudged an exceptional day in which she won an NCAA title and became the University of Washington's most decorated female track athlete by earning her fifth All-America honor.

"It used to scare the crap out of me," she said. "My nerves were a little up, but I felt like I handled it pretty well. The more they break, the less it shakes me up."

She also managed to fight off a dark feeling of dèjá vu. In the 2003 championships -- at the same venue, no less -- she snapped her pole, and one of the resulting jagged edges raced across her hand, leaving a gash requiring 10 stitches and ending her competition.

The senior marketing major from Portland isn't one to let scars or anything else discourage her. At just 5 feet 1, she is one of the smallest competitors in an event that tends to favor the vertically gifted. Lightly recruited out of high school, she improved steadily every year, finishing as the national runner-up the past two seasons before breaking through this year.

While her spill was attention-grabbing, it didn't add too much drama to the competition. At the time, she led the field through 14 feet 1 1/4 inches, clearing each of her first four heights on her first attempt. The pre-meet favorite, she was completely in control.

"I felt like I had it pretty much wrapped up," Soma said.



The broken pole earned her a do-over at 14-5 1/4 but dropped her to the back of the order. No matter; she didn't need to clear another bar. None of the three remaining competitors matched the 14-1 1/4 she'd already completed.

The UW is becoming a pole vaulting power under head coach Greg Metcalf and jumps/vaults coach Pat Licari. Brad Walker won back-to-back NCAA indoor crowns in 2003 and 2004. Junior Carly Dockendorf placed sixth this year behind Soma.

Soma will compete in a meet in Vancouver today, then heads to Carson, Calif., for the U.S. Nationals from June 23-26. She believes she has a fighting chance for a top-five finish, but she's not ready to entertain a suddenly very popular question: So, what about the 2008 Olympics?

"People keep asking me that," she said. "It's three years away."

Really? Not thinking about the possibility at all?

"It's not something I'm not thinking about," she said.

DECORATED DAWGS

When Washington senior Kate Soma cleared 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches to win the pole vault at the NCAA Track and Field Championships last Saturday, she became the fourth UW woman, and first since 1988, to win an NCAA title.

Year Athlete Event
1981 Regina Joyce 3,000
1986 Helena Uusitalo Javelin
1988 Jennifer Ponath Shot
2005 Kate Soma PV

http://gohuskies.collegesports.com/spor ... 05aaa.html

NCAA Champ Soma Added to Top Dawg Honors
Husky senior added to list of award recipients after capturing NCAA pole vault title Saturday.


June 14, 2005

SEATTLE - Washington senior Kate Soma was named Tuesday as a recipient of the 2005 Top Dawg Award, given annually to the male and female UW student-athletes who demonstrate the highest caliber of excellence in athletics.

Soma joins fellow 2005 Top Dawg Award winners Tina Frimpong (women's soccer), Kristen Rivera (softball), C.J. Klaas (men's soccer) and Alex Vlaski (men's tennis). Those four received their awards Friday at a graduation ceremony in Conibear Shellhouse, which Soma was unable to attend due to her participation in the NCAA Track and Field Championships.

Soma won the NCAA pole vault title Saturday night, becoming just the fourth UW woman -- and the first since 1988 -- to win a national championship in track and field. During her four-year career at Washington, Soma captured NCAA, Pac-10 and West Regional titles, and earned five-career All-America honors, the most-ever for a UW woman. Her personal bests indoors and out are both Washington school records, while her lifetime best of 14 feet, 3 ½ inches equals the seventh-best ever by a collegiate women's vaulter.

The Portland, Ore., native has also excelled in the classroom, earning ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VIII first-team honors, and is on the ballot for Academic All-America, to be announced June 21. She graduated Saturday with a 3.50 grade-point average, earning her degree in business administration with a focus in marketing

rainbowgirl28 wrote: Lightly recruited out of high school, she improved steadily every year, finishing as the national runner-up the past two seasons before breaking through this year.

Does anybody know what her heights were that constitue 'steady improvement?'

scubastevesgirly wrote:

rainbowgirl28 wrote: Lightly recruited out of high school, she improved steadily every year, finishing as the national runner-up the past two seasons before breaking through this year.

Does anybody know what her heights were that constitue 'steady improvement?'

I think she jumped 12' out of high school. You could look on the UW website and see what she jumped each year there.

scubastevesgirly wrote:

rainbowgirl28 wrote: Lightly recruited out of high school, she improved steadily every year, finishing as the national runner-up the past two seasons before breaking through this year.

Does anybody know what her heights were that constitue 'steady improvement?'

http://gohuskies.collegesports.com/spor ... ate00.html

you ever need someons collegiate highlight (thats still in school) typically you can go to their schools athletic website and find their roster (under the track section naturally) for future reference, in case youa re interested

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/otherspor ... oma26.html


P-I Sports Star of the Year Nominee: Kate Soma, UW track and field

By MARK BERGIN
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one of 10 stories on award winners to be honored at the 71st P-I Sports Star of the Year Banquet, Jan. 31 at the downtown Westin Hotel. Those attending will select the winners. Tickets are $65. Call 206-448-8066.

Kate Soma could probably win most party limbo contests. But despite standing 5 feet 1, she's more interested in flying over horizontal bars than waddling under them.

Last June, Soma became the fourth woman in Washington track and field history to win an NCAA championship, pole vaulting 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches.

The two-time national runner-up entered the meet in Sacramento, Calif., as an overwhelming favorite. Managing all the requisite pressure that typically accompanies high expectations, Soma cleared every necessary jump on her first attempt.

"The whole meet was just a lot of fun," she said. "I didn't go in thinking I had to win. I was amazingly relaxed."

Just four years earlier, Soma had struggled mightily to find scholarship offers -- her Oregon high school title meaning little to pole vault recruiters unimpressed by her modest stature.

Midway through the summer following her graduation from Grant High School in Portland, Soma still had not found a school. The future NCAA champion planned to walk on to the track team at Arizona. But a call from UW assistant coach Pat Licari altered that course.

"He asked if I wanted to come up here and see how it would work," Soma recalled. "When I came on my visit, (coach) Orin Richards told me, 'We really like to take care of our athletes within the program. So if you work hard, you'll be the first people we give money to.' "

Such potential for future scholarship money at a top-notch program pushed Soma to new heights. Within a year, she had improved her top mark by more than a foot, eliciting forehead slaps and self-kicks from coaches throughout the Pac-10.

Though slight, Soma proved her explosiveness in snapping five poles during her career -- a fact she partly attributed to testing new products in competition.

Soma has since settled on superior technology, matching her equipment comfort level with the geographic ease she'll enjoy at the 2008 Olympic Trials. The event is slated for the University of Oregon's Hayward Field -- a home-field advantage that could vault Soma into rarified air.