Sarah O'Neal Article (LA)

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http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 90314/1006

O'Neal tackles pole vault wins with reckless abandon

By Scott Hotard
shotard@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6367


Douglas Collier / The Town Talk
Sarah O'Neal

Make that a pair of state championships in the pole vault. The ASH sophomore won the event this spring with a Class 4A-record vault of 11 feet, bettering last year's winning mark by a foot. She'll have two more years to reach even higher.

Don't turn out the lights and leave her in the dark. Sarah O'Neal, Alexandria Senior High's fearless pole vault queen, doesn't feel so bulletproof when the world goes black.

She falls asleep at night with a bed full of stuffed animals, and there's always a light on in her room. She has to be prepared. She's never quite sure what may be lurking outside her window, or beyond the walls that border her bedroom.

Eventually, morning comes.

And Sarah O'Neal is fearless again.

She leaves some food for her two pet snakes and runs off to go hunt deer or ducks with her father. She does back flips off the trampoline, or swings from tree branches like a gymnast on the uneven bars. She tries anything that looks risky, anything that might set her apart.

"There are those who never did something because they were afraid to try it," she says. "I've never allowed myself to be that person."

Sarah's family has grown to accept that the girl is a bit adventurous. Snowboarding down mountains in New Mexico one day, swinging from tree branches the next. One time, when Sarah had yet to make seventh grade, she looked up and saw her cousin soaring above a bar with a long pole in her hands.

Looked dangerous.

Sarah couldn't wait to try.

The ASH sophomore made pole vaulting part of her life the first time she got the chance, and the two have since teamed to form the perfect marriage. The higher Sarah gets, the more she's at risk. Naturally, the 5-foot-2 vaulter wants to keep going higher. Each 76-foot jaunt down the runway, each trip to the air, is another opportunity to set herself apart.

Oh, there have been scary moments. Twice this year, Sarah was in midair when her pole snapped. She came down on the mat the first time, and landed in the plant box the second. But, to be sure, she picked up the pieces and moved on.

All that fearlessness makes Sarah tough to beat. She won the Class 4A pole vault title this spring with a record jump of 11 feet, successfully defending the championship she'd won as a freshman. Later, she talked about how easy it felt. A new, heavier pole gave her just what she needed to go higher than ever.

And higher is always better.

"This child is crazy," says Melissa O'Neal, Sarah's mother. "She's not scared of anything."

Well, almost anything.