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Mt. SAC entries for this weekend's elite ("invitational") competitive category, to the extent I was able to sort them out of the very poorly organized meet website. I tried to find recent best efforts by looking through the world lists for the 2006 indoor season and the outdoor season to date.

Mt. SAC Men's Invitational (Saturday 3 p.m.)

Russ Buller - Asics
Giovanni Lenaro - Mexico
Laurens Looije - Pocatello
Justin Norberg - VS Athletics
Robbie Pratt - BYU
John Russell - Akron
Dachi Sawano - Japan
Ray Scotten - Nebraska
Toby Stevenson - Nike

Recent heights for the men's entries range from 5.71m to 5.35m: a fairly wide range but with only nine vaulters, the best may not have to wait too long between warmup and first attempts. On the positive side, five of the vaulters have best recent efforts of 5.71 to 5.65, so it should make for a good competition.

Mt. SAC Women's Invitational (Saturday noon)

Erin Asay - San Diego State
Tamara Diles - Washington State
Carly Dockendorf - Washington
Dana Ellis - Asics
Jenny Green - Nebraska
Kierney Jackson - Georgia
Chelsea Johnson - UCLA
Tiffany Maskulinski - Washington State
Stephanie McCann - Nike Canada
Skuko Nishikori - Japan
Beth Spearman - Unattached
Jenn Stuczynski - Suhr Athletics
Janine Whitlock - Great Britain
Ashley Wilhaber - Washington

With 14 entries ranging in recent bests from 4.68m to 3.85m, this does threaten some long waits for the top vaulters. Two feet is really too wide a range for an "invitational" competition.

Roger Ruth wrote:Janine Whitlock - Great Britain

Interesting.

rainbow girl responded to Janine's being in the Invitational field with: "Interesting."

That might have meant "interesting" because it's unusual to see a Brit in that meet; or it might have meant "interesting" because Whitlock didn't vault in the indoor season or at the Commonwealth Games; or "interesting" because she just returned to her top form in the 2005 outdoor season, after a two-year drugs suspension; or . . . ?

Whitlock is interesting to me because she has led the British vaulters for a decade, usually in the world top 20, continually improving, but not quite making it to the world's elite. After the two-year drugs suspension from 16 June 2002, she returned in August 2004 at the 4.00m level of her first GBR national record nearly a decade earlier. All credit to her in recovering form for a 17th national record last outdoor season.

Her national outdoor records, as I have them:

4.00 Telford 1996-09-14
4.02 Wakefield 1997-04-09
4.02 Bedford 1997-05-26
4.03 Leeds 1997-06-15
4.10 Munchen 1997-06-21
4.11 Bebington 1997-07-20
4.13 Salgotarjan 1997-09-17
4.25 Loughborough 1998-05-17
4.30 Cottbus 1998-05-27
4.31 Bedford 1998-05-30
4.35 Praha 2000-06-05
4.36 Budapest 2001-07-01
4.40 Birmingham 2001-07-14
4.41 Manchester 2002-06-16
4.45 Loughborough 2005-05-22
4.46 Bedford 2005-06-12
4.47 London 2005-07-22