The dominance of the Central Region pole vault girls & two reasons or coaches why
Posted by Val Osipenko (valosip) on Jun 01 2008 at 11:58 PM
Outdoor 2008 >> Outdoor 2008

The dominance of the Central Region pole vault girls & two reasons or coaches why

By Brandon Miles  Article

The 2008 State Meet will mark the 10th time AAA girls compete for a state championship in the pole vault. In 1999 Carrie Bennett of Hayfield was one of the 39 pioneers who came to Norfolk State University to vault at the state meet. She would vault 10’6” to become the first girl’s pole vault state champion.

In the first few years of the event champions came from all four regions:

* Danielle Taylor of Cox High School from the Eastern Region in 2000
* Rhian Jenks of Prince George High School from the Central Region in 2003
* Nancy Baar of Patrick Henry GS High School from the Northwest Region in 2004
* Nicole Kazuba of Chantilly High School from the Northern Region in 2006

But in these last two years the sport seemed to evolve to another level in the Central Region.

Central Region girls would win 3 of the last four indoor vault championships and Anne Marie Gordon of Godwin would tie the meet record in the event with her winning vault at last year’s state outdoor championships. This year 29 girls are entered in the pole vault. Eleven of these are from the Central Region. Of these eleven, six are found in the top seven seeds in the event. Two of the reasons for this evolution of the girls pole vault in the Central Region are, Kyle Bishop, the Atlee coach and Val Osipenko the Xtreme Heights Vaulting Club coach

For the past few years vaulters coached by these two have battled not only for the regional championship but for the state championship.

This year’s state meet will see this competition within a competition. Atlee Coach, Kyle Bishop has top seeded and state indoor champion Emma Dejarnette, 5th seeded Rachael Hawks and 6th seeded Cameron Overstreet. Val Osipenko and the Xtreme Heights Club is represented by 2nd seeded Lizzie Powell of Patrick Henry, 3rd seeded Caroline Poma of Henrico, and 5th seeded Hillary Parsons of Douglas Freeman.
So when the sun sets on the 2008 pole vault championships look for a Central Regional girl to be on the winners stand – be it an Atlee or Extreme Heights vaulter.