PoleVaultPower.com

University of Texas
NCAA Division I 2004 Outdoor - 6/9/2004 to 6/12/2004
Track & Field Championship
Austin, TX

Event 14 Men Pole Vault
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American: 6.03m 6/14/2000 Jeff Hartwig, Nike
College Best: 5.98m 5/25/1996 Lawrence Johnson, Tennessee
NCAA Meet: 5.82m 5/29/1996 Lawrence Johnson, Tennessee
Stadium: 5.80m 1999 Jacob Davis, Texas
Name Year School Finals Points
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Finals
1 Tommy Skipper FR Oregon 5.70m 18-08.25 10
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50 5.60 5.70 5.83
PPP PPP XO O XO XXO XXX
2 Yoo Kim JR UCLA 5.60m 18-04.50 8
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50 5.60 5.70
PPP XO XXO XO XO XXX
3 Eric Eshbach SR Nebraska 5.60m 18-04.50 6
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50 5.60 5.70
PPP PPP O O XXO XXX
4 Paul Gensic JR Air Force 5.50m 18-00.50 4.50
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50 5.60
PPP O XO XO XXX
4 Jeremy Scott SR Arkansas 5.50m 18-00.50 4.50
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50 5.60
PPP PPP XO XO XXX
6 Sage Thames FR Texas Tech 5.50m 18-00.50 3
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50 5.60
O O XO XXO XXX
7 Jon Takahashi SR Cal Poly-SLO 5.40m 17-08.50 2
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50
O XO O XXX
8 Bobby Most SO Texas Tech 5.40m 17-08.50 0.50
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50
PPP O XO XXX
8 Giovanni Lanaro SR Cal State-Fullerton 5.40m 17-08.50 0.50
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50
PPP O XO XXX
10 Paul Panning SR Ball State 5.40m 17-08.50
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50
O XXO XXO XXX
11 Ray Scotten SO Southern Illinois 5.40m 17-08.50
5.15 5.30 5.40 5.50
XO XXO XXO XXX
12 Brad Teeple SR Nebraska 5.30m 17-04.50
5.15 5.30 5.40
XO XXO XXX
13 Pat Luke SR UCLA 5.15m 16-10.75
5.15 5.30
XO XXX
-- David Hinton JR Mount St. Mary's NH
5.15
XXX
-- Daniel Trosclair SR LSU NH
5.15
XXX

NOTES: Skipper, the national high school record holder, wins his first NCAA outdoor title.

SKIPPER QUOTES: “I really honored to be down here in Texas and compete among these athletes. This was an awesome, awesome field. There were many deserving guys here, so I’m really happy it went my way tonight. I was a little shaky. I felt pretty good at the beginning of the meet, but I put a piece of tape down at my mark and I kept running through it. Well, I kept running through because I was running off of someone else’s mark who was about 10-feet behind me. It kind of got me off to a shaky start. I wasn’t too confident going in, but it ended up going pretty well. I was trying to go for 5.83 meters, but I petered out at the end. I wasn’t doing things right. I wasn’t taking off very well and I was overrunning. I wasn’t worried about a record jump.â€Â

It was an amazing competition.

Skipper was really off in warmup. I guess the wrong mark quote explains it. Made 5.50 by a foot. Made 5.60 and 5.70 by just a few inches each. Never really had a shot at 5.83. Had plenty of hip height but a really low plant and throwing his head back caused him to come up short on all 3 attempts.

Kim smoked 5.60. He had enough in him for 5.70 but he flagged out for the bar each time.

Eshbach made 5.60 on his third with plenty of room to spare. I think he may of went up poles for 5.70. Got stood up on his first, ran through on his 2nd, and I don't remember the 3rd.

Jeremy Scott put 1 1/2 feet on 5.50. He was definitely in the driver's seat. But, he pulled his hammy on his first attempt at 5.60. Tried a 2nd attempt but didn't make it down the runway and called it a day.

Sage Thames cleared his first 18' bar with a slight brush and tweaked his hammy on his first attempt at 5.60 and called it a day also.

The story of the meet was Ray Scotten. He usually takes off at 14' - 14'6". During warmup his penultimate hit at 13'. The pole bent and he hung on. His take off toe dragged down at about 8'. He went flat on his back in the air. The pole was bent at, oh, about 140 degrees. How it didn't break, I dunno. It shot him OVER the fence and he landed HEAD FIRST on the 2nd row of the metal bleachers. Everyone thought he was dead. After about 5 minutes, he got up and smoked a 17' bungee. He is a hard @ss. His entire right shoulder blade was covered with road rash. I wouldn't be surprised if he has serious damage and his adrenaline let him keep going.

Nice job everyone, it was a good competetion

I've never met the kid, but being in the same boat as him with being injured for a long time, I'm gonna go ahead and give him props. He deserves the credit after coming off of two years+ of injuries. Good work Sage.

ray scottens crash was absolutely horrific. my heart stopped for about 5 minutes until i saw his feet moving. he actually tripped on his penultamate during is gather, by his own account, and just tried to muscle it out. im glad hes okay. but yeah, a very sore boy he will be tomorrow.

paul gensic looked amaizng, and got his first 18 foot vault.

jeremy scott had tons of height over 18'4

sage looked good to. he is one of the most genuinely nice people i have every met ( i met him at nationals in h.s. about 3 years ago). and im glad he has overcome all he has. also got his first 18 footer.

esbach seemed to be having some step problems, got stood up a lot

and then there is the man child. Tommy skippers run is a thing to be envious of, and while his takeoff has improved, it looks to me like he needs to stay down for another frame or 2. hes to his back right off the ground. but god did he have some heigh over 19'1. if he can fix a few small things in the next week, he could def. pop out a 19 footer by trials. SCAREY!!

i tried to take some pics with the digi cams the ncaa gave us, but the resolution is awful on those things, so hopefully rainbowgirl has some.

Ray Scotten is the toughest man to ever vault in Texas. He dented the bleachers where he landed and then competed. The most amazing scarey wreck I have ever seen at a pole vault pit.

I'll have pictures up soon I hope. I upgraded my web hosting and I am already starting to max out my server space (400 megabytes worth!) so I am working on juggling some things around. Plus we got back really late last night, and I was falling asleep while I was working on the pictures.

I missed the Scotten crash, but I got a good picture of his back/shoulder.

Yoo Kim set a new Korean National Record!! Eshbach was on fire, I really thought he had 5.70. Gensic had a nice PR. I thought Scott was really going to steal the show. He looked a bit awkward and wasn't lined up... but if he had put a good one together, he would have been money. It was nice to see the Texas Tech guys do well Oh yeah I really thought Takahashi was going to light it up. He was doing a lot of stuff right, and should have gotten at least 5.50.

When did Tommy start throwing his head back? I've been taking pictures of him since he was a HS Junior, and he never used to do that

Hmm back to working on pictures... thanks to everyone who introduced themselves to me It was nice to meet you all!

Pictures!

http://polevaultpower.com/media/04ncaamf/

Here's Tommy's first attempt at 5.83
http://polevaultpower.com/media/04ncaam ... 20330.html

And here is Scotten's back!
http://polevaultpower.com/media/04ncaam ... 005_2.html

belmore wrote:Ray Scotten is the toughest man to ever vault in Texas. He dented the bleachers where he landed and then competed. The most amazing scarey wreck I have ever seen at a pole vault pit.

You know them HOOSIERS are tough as nails.......................

PVJunkie wrote:You know them HOOSIERS are tough as nails.......................

That's right...we can crash with the best of 'em and keep on jumping!