NEW ORLEANS (WTVA/Ole Miss Athletics) – Headlined by NCAA pole vault champion Sam Kendricks, three Ole Miss athletes were recognized as USTFCCCA All-Americans for the 2014 outdoor track & field season Monday.
Kendricks, who won his second straight outdoor pole vault crown, earned first team All-America honors. Robert Semien and Phillip Young made the second team.
Student-athletes were honored for their performances at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships this past weekend in Eugene, Oregon. First team All-America honors were awarded to those who finished among the top eight in an individual or relay event as part of a team. Second team All-America honors went to those who finished between ninth and 16th. Honorable mention honors were given to the remaining finishers.
Kendricks, a junior from Oxford, Mississippi, captured his second NCAA title with a winning clearance of 18-8.25 in Eugene. He out-dueled Akron’s Shawn Barber, who had defeated Kendricks in similar fashion when they finished 1-2 at the NCAA indoor meet in March. Kendricks receives All-America accolades for the fifth time in his career, including four times on the first team.

Clackamas senior Connor McLean repeated as 6A state pole vault champion and won the high hurdles at this year’s state meet. McLean’s time 14.27 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles was the fastest time in the state this season and was all the fastest in school history. The Air Force Academy bound senior also owns the season’s best pole vault at 16 feet. We caught up with McLean to ask him about his track and field career and life outside of sports. Here’s what he had to say:

Connor McLean, Clackamas High School, Senior, Track and Field

What are your college plans?
I have accepted an appointment to Air Force Academy. I plan to study mechanical engineering and compete for the track and field team.

What lessons have sports taught you?
It is through hard work and dedication that success occurs. You get out of something what you put into it.

Who do you look up to and why?
I look up to my parents. My parents have always encouraged me to set high goals, and then they have pushed and encourage me to reach them. They have always had high expectation for me and have never put limits on what I can achieve in life.

What’s your gameday routine?
My gameday routine usually starts the night before by thinking about what my goals are for the upcoming meet. On meet day I start by visualizing what I will do in each event. When I arrive at the meet, I walk one lap around the track to look at the facilities. Before and between events I hang out with friends to stay relaxed.

What kind of music is on your iPod?
Hip hop/Pop music. It is upbeat without being too intense.

What’s your favorite book?
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

What’s something about you that would surprise others?
I do not like roller coasters. I am daring enough to pole vault 16′ straight up in the air, but I do not like roller coasters.

Are you involved in any activities or volunteering other than sports? If so, what?
Through my high school I have been involved with the National Honor Society, Winter Rage (help families in need during holidays), Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and peer tutoring. I am a Special Olympics volunteer helping with summer games and volunteering at fundraising events.

What’s your perfect day?
My perfect day would start by hanging out with friends at the river. I would then head to my track club, Willamette Striders, with Timmy, Kyle, Hannah, and Alli for a workout. My day would end at home with my family and girlfriend watching a movie

Hilton Head Island, SC –The work continues for Kimbery Vigil.The recent Battery Creek High School graduate agreed this week to pole vault at USC Beaufort, the next step after two years of work to get to this point.Vigil, born and raised in Beaufort, spent a year at White Oak High School in North Carolina as a freshman. There the track coach recruited her to pole vault, based on her background as a flier on a competition cheerleading team.”I was like, ‘All right, sure, I’ll give it a shot,’ ” Vigil said.When she returned to Beaufort and Battery Creek, she didn’t fully commit to her new sport, attending only a couple practices and meets. But for her final two high school seasons, she threw herself into it, working with Battery Creek coaches Tyrone Pierce and Chris Roberts and with pole vault guru Rusty Shealy in Columbia.Vigil plans to continue working with Shealy as she prepares for USCB more

Two of the region’s top pole vaulters, Emily Boyle of Creighton, Nebraska, and Christina Herrboldt of Menno, are among five recruits who were announced by the Mount Marty College track and field program on Friday. Boyle set the CHS pole vault record at 10 feet, and was a two-time state place winner in the Nebraska State Class C meet. During her high school caree,r Boyle was on the Honor Roll, was a Citizenship award winner and named All-Academic for basketball and track. The daughter of C. Ed and Karen Boyle of Creighton, Nebraska, she will major in nursing at MMC. In addition to her athletic awards Boyle will receive an Academic Merit Scholarship. Herrboldt placed third in the S.D. Class B meet in the pole vault, clearing nine feet. more

S tacy Dragila was so new to pole vaulting that her first post-college meets featured frayed nerves and even a bit of a fashion crisis. She wore mismatching outfits – Nike shoes with an adidas warmup – she wasn’t sponsored, and she had no idea if she would succeed. In time, she certainly did, pioneering a new era for women’s athletics with her ability to jet down the runway, stick a pole into the pit and soar to new heights. By the time she retired in 2009, the Placer High School and Yuba College graduate had won 17 USA Indoor and Outdoor championships. And she became the first Olympic gold medalist in the event, clearing 15 feet, 1 inch in Sydney in 2000. On June 12, the Big Sky Conference selected that gold-medal performance as its No. 1 women’s moment as part of the conference’s 50th anniversary celebration. Dragila, who competed in the heptathlon for Idaho State from 1993 to 1995, learned to vault from coach Dave Nielsen, who introduced her to the event. “If I would have gone anywhere else in my career, I would have never been on that podium or that stage (in Sydney),” Dragila said. “Dave obviously is a pioneer himself, and I give him full credit for having the vision, and the vision that he broke that barrier. He allowed his athletes to try something new.” Dragila became the face of the event in America, winning three world titles and setting the world record several times with a best of 15-10. Now 43, Dragila conducts pole vault camps, including one June 30-July 4 at Sacramento State. She expects to check out the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships at Hornet Stadium in the days before her camp.

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The Virginia Tech Hokies Women’s track and field program has shown a lot of potential not only in field events but also in some of the long distance events with multiple athletes qualifying this past season for the outdoor NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon. The Hokies had one athlete in particular who stayed on top of the ACC in her event and proved that she could contend for a NCAA title as a senior.German pole vaulter Martina Schultze was named the ACC Women’s Field Performer of the Year after another strong track and field season indoors and outdoors. Schultze finished third in Eugene at the NCAA Championships in the pole vault which made her a First Team All-American for the 2014 outdoor season. Schultze became the second woman in ACC history to also win three straight outdoor titles in any even while Schultze also now is a two-time ACC indoor pole vault champion.Now, Martina Schultze will have one main goal and that will be to win a national title next year after winning the ACC outdoor pole vault title all three years of her career. Schultze will look to finish her sweep of outdoor pole vault titles in her collegiate career while also making sure she is at her best at next year’s NCAA Championships. Schultze definitely has the potential and the most important thing for her will be to avoid injuries during the offseason and the indoor season. However, Schultze will probably enjoy being honored as the ACC Women’s Field Performer of the Year for now.

AUSTIN, Texas – Fifth-year senior pole vaulter Kiley Tobel (Commerce Twp., Mich./Walled Lake Western), who recently concluded a standout career for the University of Michigan women’s track and field team, was selected to the Capital One Academic All-America second team today (Thursday, June 26) as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America. After earning Capital One Academic All-District V first team honors on May 29, Tobel moved on to the Capital One Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees were awarded. Tobel earned a spot on the Academic All-America list for the first time in her career after being voted to the Capital One Academic All-District V second team in 2012 and 2013. Tobel, a two-time team captain (2013, ’14), leaves Michigan as the school record holder in the indoor and outdoor pole vault, having cleared 4.25 meters (13-11.25) both indoor and outdoor. Throughout her career, Tobel earned five All-America honors, including All-America second team recognition following a 15th-place performance at the 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships. Her highest finish at the national level came in 2012 when she tied for eighth place at the NCAA Indoor Championships to bring home First Team All-America accolades. more

AUSTIN, Texas – Eastern Illinois senior pole vaulter Mick Viken has been named a Capital One Second Team Academic All-American as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Viken earned second team honors after being named a third team Academic All-American last season.  Viken recently earned second team USTFCCCA All-American honors in the pole vault placing 9th at the NCAA National Championships.  Viken cleared 18-0 1/2 at the national championship meet.

In the class room the Arlington Heights, native holds a 3.39 GPA majoring in Kinesiology and Sports Studies.

EIU has had 35 Academic All-Americans at the NCAA Division I level.  Viken is the second All-American from EIU men’s track joining Daniel Strackeljahn

Holland, Mich.

Former Grand Valley State pole vaulter Kristen Hixson failed to jump 14 feet, 1 ¼ inches on Friday at the U.S Track and Field Championships and didn’t place. Reigning Olympic gold medalist Jenn Suhr won with a jump of 15-9.

Hixson won the Division II national title in the pole vault this spring.

Read more: http://www.hollandsentinel.com/article/20140628/Sports/140629132#ixzz35wj8H0Ez

The end of Zach Siegmeier’s pole vault season came a bit earlier than he had hoped. The former Crystal  Lake Central standout and recent University of Minnesota graduate won’t be in Sacramento, California, this weekend for the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships. A field of 18 pole vaulters are competing at the meet. Siegmeier learned late last week that he ranked 19th in the country. “I would say it’s a little bittersweet,” Siegmeier said of finishing one spot from the nation’s biggest track meet. Although he won’t compete in California, Siegmeier’s final two seasons at Minnesota included highlights galore. Over the past 12 months, he won two Big Ten Conference outdoor titles and one indoor crown in his event. Earlier this month, he became the Gophers’ first All-American in the pole vault since 1998 when he tied for fifth in the event in Eugene, Oregon. His vault of 18 feet, one-half inch made him the school’s top pole vault finisher in a national meet since 1993. more

Clarksville, TN – Recently graduated Austin Peay State University pole vaulter Molly Basch has earned third-team Capital One Women’s Track and Field Academic All-American honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The honor is the first of Basch’s career and the first by an Austin Peay track athlete since Carrie Burggraf (first team) and Shamai Larsen (second team) were honored in 2010. Basch graduated earlier in May with a degree in psychology after earning a perfect 4.0 grade-point average during her collegiate career. Basch’s academic exploits earned her a share of Austin Peay’s Female Scholar-Athlete Award, her second straight, and the Governors Club Academic Achievement Award at April’s Athletic Awards Banquet. more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Eastern Illinois senior pole vaulter Peter Geraghty placed fourth in the event at the United State National Championships in Sacramento, Calif.

Geraghty cleared 18-0 1/2.  The title was won by Sam Kendricks from Mississippi as he cleared 18-10 1/4.

Earlier this month Geraghty placed fourth in the pole vault at the NCAA National Outdoor Track Championships earning first team All-American honors

Sam Kendricks’ 2014 season in pole vault only got better Sunday as he won his first USA Track & Field Championships Sunday in Sacramento, Calif.

The Ole Miss standout and former Oxford High Charger won the event with a leap of 18 feet, 10.25 inches, his best mark of the outdoor season. Kendricks has now won the SEC, NCAA and USA Outdoor championships.

 “I’m ecstatic right now,” Kendricks told reporters after his win. “This is such an awesome experience. After the NCAA championship, I just wanted to come out here and jump and to be with these guys I’ve looked up to, it’s incredible.”

 “Sam being the U.S. champion is a great way to complete a fantastic season,” Ole Miss coach Brian O’Neal said. “He always competes his heart out for the Rebs, and for him to rattle off this string of wins at SECs, NCAAs and the U.S. Championships is an impressive addition to an already outstanding career. It’s a fulfillment of all the hours of hard work that he’s put in this entire year.”

The only time Kendricks didn’t win a vault competition was when he finished second at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

“Sam epitomizes what it means to be an Ole Miss student-athlete,” O’Neal added. “He’s a first-class person who works hard day in and day out at his craft to be the best he can possibly be, and he’s a leader both on and off the track.”

 This was the second USA title for the Ole Miss family this weekend, as former Rebel Brittney Reese claimed gold in the women’s long jump on Saturday. Other Rebels who competed were Ricky Robertson in the high jump (8th place) and Isiah Young in both the 100 meters (prelims) and 200 meters (semifinals).

Texas A&M-Commerce pole vaulter K’Don Samuels continued his stellar athletic year, this time in his home country, where he recently won the pole vault at the Jamaican National Championships. His vault of 4.95 meters (16-2.75 feet) was good enough to win the meet, and likely qualifies him for the upcoming Commonwealth Games which begin July 23 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Samuels, who has been a member of the Jamaican national team since 2008, is currently ranked as one of the top 300 pole vaulters in the world for this season, setting a school record with a vault of 5.30 meters at the NCAA Division II Championships in Grand Rapids, Mich. more

http://www.usatf.tv/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=45365&do=videos&video_id=121191

Arizona had three vaulters in the top 10 at the USATF Junior National Champions.  Cole Walsh  jumped to a huge PR in the pole vault on Saturday to win the event with a jump of 17-6.5.   A 2013 graduate of Brophy College Prep High School in Phoenix, the University of Oregon freshman Pr’d by 9.5 inches.  Walsh finished 2nd at the Arizona State Meet in 2013 to finish out his high school career with a PR of 16.9

Cornell University freshman and Horizon High graduate Grant Sisserson finished 3rd with a jump of 17-4.5 and Arcadia High School 2014 graduate Tim Duckworth finished 10th with a jump of 10.00.75.

Bonnie Draxler will leave Wisconsin later this summer to launch her collegiate track and field career in sunny San Diego. She will be competing at a much higher level, but big jumps are nothing new to Draxler. The recently graduated Wrightstown athlete is departing as perhaps the greatest Wisconsin high school girls’ pole vaulter of all-time and one of the finest all-around track and field athletes in WIAA history. Draxler wrapped up her prolific prep track career 33 days ago with yet another dominant performance at the WIAA state track and field meet in La Crosse. Draxler won Division 2 state titles in the 100- and 400-meter dashes along with the pole vault, setting a state record in the latter event with a leap of 13 feet, 3 inches. By doing so, Draxler became only the fourth girl in state history to win 10 state titles in a high school career and one of four girls to claim four state titles in two events: the 400 and pole vault. Draxler will attend San Diego State in the fall on a track and field scholarship and has been competing in national meets this summer. She set a personal-best in the pole vault Sunday at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore, with a second-place leap of 13-11 2.5.  more

Capping off an outstanding freshman season, Oral Roberts University pole vaulter Justin Estala was named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic team on Wednesday. Estala carries a 3.65 GPA in sports management, and qualified for the NCAA West Regional meet, finishing 27th out of more than 45 competitors at the meet.

Oregon pole vaulter Cole Walsh was eliminated from semi-final contention at the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships after failing to clear the 5.10 meter mark.

On his first attempt at 5-meters, Walsh was out of sync.

“My first jumps aren’t always the best,” Walsh said after the event. “I usually take a little bit longer to get the right pole, to get my run locked in. I would say the first jump kind of sets the tone.”

Walsh couldn’t get over the bar on his first two attempts, but easily cleared it on his third and final chance. He hoped that his successful third attempt would be a momentum shift.

“The 5-meter jump, when I cleared it, I blew thorough the pole I was on and I felt like everything was ready to go,” Walsh said.

“I felt like I was ready to go, and I wasn’t.”

Walsh never reclaimed the same feeling he had when he set a personal best of 5.35 meters at the USA Junior Championships earlier this month at Hayward Field. He missed on all three of his attempts at 5.10 meters.

“I never got a rhythm,” Walsh said. “I don’t feel like I was locked in the same way that I was at Junior Nationals.”

Walsh, who redshirted for the Ducks last year, is taking his performance at the World Junior Championships as a learning experience that he can utilize heading into next season.

“Every bad jump day has something that you can take out of it,” Walsh said. “I feel like I know what I need to improve on. I feel like this experience gave me a lot to improve on.”

South Dakota pole vaulter Emily Grove was named the Women’s Indoor Field Scholar Athlete of the Year in a  release by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The organization also honored a total of nine Coyote women and five Coyote men with All-Academic honors.

Grove, a sophomore with a 3.80 GPA in kinesiology and sports science, was one of four women to receive a Scholar Athlete of the Year honor from the USTFCCCA. She’s the second Coyote to earn the honor in as many years after Bethany Firsick was named the Outdoor Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2013. Grove finished second in the pole vault at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships last March and had the nation’s best indoor pole vault mark of 14 feet, 9½ inches during the season.

Grove was one of nine Coyote women to receive All-Academic honors from the USTFCCCA. She joins pole vault teammates Firsick, Hunter Wilkes, Emily Brigham and Madison Mills, as well as distance runner Amber Eichkorn, triple jumper Ashley Thompson, thrower Danielle Waldner and high jumper Megan Glisar as All-Academic honorees.

- See more at: http://wnax.com/news/180081-national-honor-for-usd-standout/#sthash.TQTHxBPj.dpuf