Alaska girl wants to pole vault

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=3815

Kodiak’s flying girl
Article published on Thursday, October 12th, 2006
By DEREK CLARKSTON
Mirror Writer
Standing three feet over water, Sasha Smith clenches her toes on the end of a piece of wood, preparing to spring into the air.

In her head, the senior diver is envisioning the perfect dive. As the crowd draws quiet, she spreads her arms out like a soaring eagle while her toes start moving up and down.

In a blink of an eye, Smith vaults into the air, twisting and turning enough times to cause a cramp in an onlooker’s neck. In a few seconds, her hands crack the seal of the crystal-blue water as she immerses herself.

Going deep enough to touch the bottom of the pool, she darts back up to welcoming applause, swims to the side of the pool, lifts her body out of the water, grabs a towel and dries herself off to do it all over again.

Smith did this six times during the 1-meter dive competition at Kodiak High School’s swim meet in Homer last Friday. And she did it like no other lady Bear has done it in the past 20 years.

Her six-dive total of 203.5 apparently broke Helen Jentry’s school record set sometime between 1983 and ’87. However, there are no documents of Jentry’s scores so Kodiak coach John Lindquist has proclaimed it a modern-day Kodiak record.

“I went out there and for some reason I was doing really well, better than what I have been doing,â€Â

[rainbowgirl28]

Since pole vaulting is not an event Kodiak track and field offers, she has been focusing on diving, but she would like the chance to vault through the air in college, no matter what device she is flying from.

The Alaska High School Association (or whatever the name of the organization is) dropped pole vault altogether several years back. I don't believe any of the colleges in Alaska have it either.

Does anyone know if there are any pole vaulting clubs left in Alaska, or any way to pole vault at all?

[rainbowgirl28]

Does anyone know if this place ended up getting a pole vault pit? http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/vie ... php?t=4528


I want some Alaska insight!!

[rainbowgirl28]

This is the extent of my Alaska pole vault knowledge: http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=468