Some schools don't bother with conference with some athletes, so they are fresh for nationals. I don't know if that was the case here or not. I had no idea Virginia Tech even had such a huge vault program. 7 guys at 16-7 (and presumably some of them are better than that) is obviously very unusual.
I can't believe a D1 program even has 7 vaulters. That's a ton of guys for literally 1 event. I imagine some of them must do decathlon or other jumps.
Most cheerleaders in the ACC are experst at climbing poles, but only one team can field pole vaulters?
VA Tech regularly has a plethora of outstanding PVers. This is pretty well known, like saying "did you know Oregon has a lot of good distance runners?"
Truly incredible. I was going to start a thread on this. Glad you noticed it:
Place Athlete Affiliation Best Jump Flight (Pl)
1 Chris Uhle SR Virginia Tech 5.37m (17-7¼ ) 1 (1)
2 Torben Laidig SO Virginia Tech 5.27m (17-3½ ) 1 (2)
3 Deakin Volz FR Virginia Tech 5.27m (17-3½ ) 1 (3)
4 Jeffrey Linta JR Virginia Tech 5.07m (16-7½ ) 1 (4)
4 Jared Allison JR Virginia Tech 5.07m (16-7½ ) 1 (4)
6 James Steck SO Virginia Tech 5.07m (16-7½ ) 1 (6)
6 Brad Johnson JR Virginia Tech 5.07m (16-7½ ) 1 (6)
8 Connor Hall JR Duke 4.92m (16-1¾ ) 1 (8)
9 Jefferey Jernigan JR Virginia 4.77m (15-7¾ ) 1 (9)
10 Luke Annichiarico SO Wake Forest 4.77m (15-7¾ ) 1 (10)
Cayman Ellis JR Florida State NH 1
Nick Catchur SO Miami NH 1
Harrison Hix SO Clemson NH 1
Austin Vegas SR UNC NH 1
Nathan Daniel SR Georgia Tech NH 1
Wow, where is the competition in the ACC?
I am surprised a team can enter seven vaulters. What are the rules? As many as you want? Three and then hit a qualifier?
There is no limit per event as far as I know. Each team is allowed to bring 30 athletes per gender to the meet to compete and distribute them to events as long as they are qualified for the event.
VT has 4 in the top 10 in the east region right now with two more in the magic top 48, and one more just outside of that.
The VT vaulters are legit, the ACC shouldn't be too ashamed of being ravaged this hard by them.
check out Long Beach State tomorrow at Big west conference champs. huge pole vault squad, head and shoulders above other teams in conference. obviously not same as ACC but they have several West regional qualifiers.
its legit wrote:
VT has 4 in the top 10 in the east region right now with two more in the magic top 48, and one more just outside of that.
The VT vaulters are legit, the ACC shouldn't be too ashamed of being ravaged this hard by them.
This is less about VT having good vaulters than the other schools, frankly, being garbage at the event.
How some of these schools offer scholarships and can't find kids who can vault 16 or LJ 23 is beyond me.
Laidig is actually the top vaulter for Tech, having set the school record at 18'3".
Who knews that Tech was and is the Oregon of vaulting!
Maybe a story worth researching here, Rojos?
agreed! Would love to read an article about this. I was unaware they were so good at it
VT has perhaps the most dominant NCAA T&F program currently.
the bottom line guy wrote:
This is less about VT having good vaulters than the other schools, frankly, being garbage at the event.
How some of these schools offer scholarships and can't find kids who can vault 16 or LJ 23 is beyond me.
EVEN if your school has a full compliment of 12 scholarships, you still have 18 events and many schools refuse to give money to pole vaulters since the pole vault is often a black hole event. I.E. A lot of the top pole vaulters do nothing but Pole Vault.
If you want a successful team, you have to spend money on the athletes that can get you the most points. Great Sprinter/Jumpers, hurdlers, distance runners and throwers can ALL score in 2 or more events (and some as many as 5 or 6) for the same amount of money a PVer will get for scoring in a single event (Yes some of the better PVers are Dec guys, but the top guys are almost always JUST vaulters)
So a lot schools look at giving scholarships to PVers as wasting money that could be spend better elsewhere
VT just won the ACC by 36 points over NC State. VT scored 38 points in the pole vault. I think many ACC schools will be reevaluating how big if a waste of money the pole vault is...
It is even more funny because NC State could be very good at the pole vault but wants nothing to do with it. They are the top engineering school in NC and have guys and girls ask to pole vault there every year. Pole vaulters are typically good students and that is why schools like VT have such good programs. They have 7 vaulters over 16-7 but most are walk ons or very small scholarships. They have their three 18-0 guys, and the others are usually just happy to train there.
VT did win by 36 after scoring 38 in the vault, but if you are going to take away their best event then you need to also take away the 18 that NC State got for putting four in the top six of the 100. Or alternatively, you could say all they needed to win from the vault was the sixth place guy. The rest was just running up the score.
These weren't cheap points because the rest of the conference doesn't bother. It would be one thing if they had two good guys and then were taking 4th-7th with vaulters at 14-15 feet. 16'7" is a quality vault for the minor places at a conference meet.
The issue at the major conference schools with no vaulters (NC State is far from the only one) is not money. As was said, vaulters will walk-on, and these fully funded programs will give at least a little money to anyone who is a conference scorer. And they certainly have no problem affording the poles and pits, which keeps lots of high schools from offering the event. But most of the schools don't have a coach with vault experience. The majority of small programs don't contest the vault seriously, and that's where coaches get their start. Those programs do have serious budget limits, a single coach may have do all the field events, or all the jumps plus sprints and hurdles. If they weren't a vaulter in college, they are very unlikely to become a competent vault coach in that environment, and if kid wants to walk on to vault at a school like that they are probably just told "we don't do that event." And it perpetuates its way up the system, as schools don't have vaulters because they don't have a decent vault coach, and so the coach never learns to be any better at it.
Maybe something like VT scoring 38 in the ACC vault changes things, but it's not obvious it will. It would if those points came from week performances, but even with a goo coach you can't just snap your fingers and make some 16-7 walk-ons appear.
The point of my comment was to show that teams need to stop trying to 'scratch events' they think take too much time to coach, or want to focus on guys that 'score multiple points'
The majority of the ACC teams have good pole vault coaches. But it is a constant battle for scholarship money or other resources. I see schools all the time invest big money into a kid that coming out of high school can not score in any events, but because they 'could run' the 100, 200, 400 or 800, 1500,5000, they are worth 'more money. But the majority of these kids never pan out as people that can double or triple. Where a guy that is guarenteed his points in his one event are more valuable right away.
The worst are all the 800 runners some schools have. On occasion you see a great guy double the 800 and 1500, but it is not like all of the schools 800 runners can do that double and score in both. But they are always on far more money.