Tim Beierle article (VA)

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http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details ... 17&CHID=20

One Year Later, Vaulter Coming On Posted 2006-04-01
By Dustin Dopirak

This year wasn’t supposed to be Tim Beierle’s breakout year in outdoor track. Last year was.

The Harrisonburg High School junior pole vaulter, one of the favorites to win the event at today’s Co-Ed Relays hosted by the Blue Streaks, had already made the leap, as he put it.

After posting a respectable vault of 11 feet, 6 inches as a freshman in outdoor track, he jumped into the elite as a sophomore in the indoor season, winning the Valley District title with a vault of 13 feet. He qualified for the Group AA meet, where he finished seventh with a 12-6.

"I think his goals would have been to win districts in outdoor, do well in regions, qualify for the state meet, see how that shook out," Harrisonburg track coach Dave Loughran said.

But none of that happened. In May, Beierle went down with an injury that had been misdiagnosed months earlier.

Beierle started to have back problems during the indoor season but doctors thought there was just, as the junior put it, a "smushed joint in [his] spine." In May, however, his knees were giving out, and one morning he woke up and couldn’t walk, so his parents, Tom and Brenda, took him to the hospital. Doctors found two stress fractures in the bottom vertebra of his spine, meaning he would be out the next three months.

That meant missing the only meets that really mattered. No district meet. No region meet. No state meet.

"It was pretty disappointing, probably the hardest thing I’ve been through so far in my life," Beierle said. "Just because I worked at it and wanted it so bad."

Not being able to pole vault wasn’t his only problem. During the summer, he couldn’t lift anything heavier than 10 pounds. He could only exercise by walking or riding a stationary bike. And he was in constant pain.

By September, Beierle started physical therapy, lifting to strengthen his core so that the injury wouldn’t occur again.

Soon, he was vaulting again with a pole-vaulting club run by Western Albemarle coach Kevin Matheny at the school outside of Charlottesville. Beierle doesn’t have a first period class at Harrisonburg, so he got up at 5 a.m. two days a week during the fall to drive to Charlottesville, vaulted for about an hour and made it back for second period at 8:30 a.m.

"That really says a lot about him," Loughran said. "When everyone else who didn’t have a first period class was sleeping in, he was on the road to Charlottesville to get a vault in before class."

Beierle first had to correct his steps to make sure he wouldn’t be injured again. The reason he hurt his back in the first place was that he was running under the bar before taking off on his vaults and had to hyper extend his back to get himself over the bar. That put a constant strain on his back, and the pain kept getting worse as he continued to vault the wrong way.

As unnatural as it sounds, it became ingrained in him and was a hard habit to break. Eventually he got used to the standard form, and got his old strength back. By indoor season, he was not only reaching his old personal records, but breaking them.

At the Walt Cormack Relays at Virginia Military Institute in December, one of the first meets of the indoor season, Beierle vaulted 14-1, bettering his previous personal record by more than a foot.

"It was awesome just to get back," he said. "It was one of my goals to start jumping again. … My biggest fear was that I was going to start jumping again and it was going to start hurting and I wasn’t going to be able to jump anymore."

Said HHS pole vault coach Michael Dickerson: "A lot of athletes wouldn’t be able to do that. His determination and his willingness to go through what he went through, the pain and the rehab, just to come out and participate in a sport like this where it could happen tomorrow, the same thing could happen again. But he was out here busting his tail. It’s real impressive."

Beierle kept going on his way to another Valley District indoor title, and this time also claimed the Region II championship before finishing fourth at the state meet. That gives him plenty of reason to expect similar success in outdoor competition, but doesn’t guarantee he’ll dominate the Valley.

Two of the vaulters who finished ahead of him in the state â€â€

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http://www.rocktownweekly.com/sports_de ... 57&CHID=20

HHS’s Beierle Vaults Into Meet Record Book Posted 2006-04-18
By Joe Lemire



Turner Ashby High School's Christina Rhodes pole vaults during Monday's track meet at TA.

Photo by Thomas J. Turney

BRIDGEWATER – Records, redemption and a re-run ruled the resumption of the Turner Ashby Invitational track meet.

After morning showers had passed and a strong headwind died down, Harrisonburg High School’s Tim Beierle set a meet pole-vaulting record to the cheers of its previous holder. Having already secured a first-place vault, Beierle asked that the bar be raised to 14 feet, 2 inches, which he cleared with relative ease to establish a personal best.

Spotswood assistant coach J.B. Rossen stood on the sideline – offering advice, cheering and nervously pacing – as Beierle sought to break Rossen’s meet record of 14 feet, 5 inches, set in 2000. The third try proved to be the charm, and Beierle cleared it on his final attempt.

"I guess I was more concerned about the P.R. when I cleared 14-2," Beierle, a junior, said. "And then 14-5 was just the extra – I wasn’t really expecting that."

By clearing that height, he earned another round of three vaults to go even higher and attempted 15 feet, 1 inch – the qualifying mark for Nike’s national prep meet in Greensboro, N.C. On his third try, Beierle managed to get his left foot over the bar but, lacking the momentum to clear it, his shin came down on top of the bar and the two toppled to the mat together.

"Yeah, I got one foot over – not the other one," he said with a laugh. "I got caught up there. I came out of the vault too early and didn’t stay up on it."

The team champions were Harrisonburg’s girls, convincingly beating second-place Buffalo Gap 119.5 points to 74, and Turner Ashby’s boys, edging Handley 91-86.

Beginning the banner day for vaulters was TA junior Chrissy Rhodes. She cleared 9 feet, 6 inches and won the event by 2 feet, besting Broadway’s Ali Reedy. She let her coach choose her next height – Knights pole vault coach Mike Stover elected a school-record tying 10 feet, 3 inches – and, though she didn’t clear it, Stover is confident it won’t be long before she does.

"She can be the very best we’ve ever had here at Turner Ashby," Stover, in his 14th year coaching at TA, said. "She is able clearly to take the school record down, which [was set] by Lynnsey Hale, who was by far the best we had had. I think Chrissy will pass that by a considerable amount."

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http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details ... 88&CHID=20

Streaks’ Beierle Wins Gold In Pole Vault Posted 2006-05-27
He was the lone city/county winner at the Region II track meet Friday.

By Dustin Dopirak



MINERAL â€â€