Pole Vaulter Tracy Koesel Elevating Esteem For Event Riverside Athlete Places Second In The Pole Vault At The National Jr. Olympics

Tracy Koesel didn’t like to run, so she learned how to fly.

Now the trend-setting female pole vaulter is ranked the second-best nationally in her age group.

Koesel, an incoming junior at Riverside High School, finished second at the USATF Junior Olympic Championships July 24 in Baton Rouge, La.

She cleared 9 feet 4 inches to finish behind Rhiannon Armson of Stayton, Ore., among intermediate girls to become the only Eastern Washington placer at the meet.

The two had tied at 10-0 during regional competition in Eugene, Ore., to qualify for nationals. In Baton Rouge, Koesel finished 30 cm, or 1 foot, behind her foe.

“People running the standards were doing metric,” said Koesel. “Sometimes they’d go up 10 cm, sometimes 20. I didn’t know what I was jumping and didn’t go as high as I could.”

That the 5-foot-2, three-sport athlete vaults as high as she does is amazing. The woman’s pole vault is currently regarded as more of a novelty than a serious track and field event, although Frontier League schools scored it in meets last spring and coaches are pushing for its inclusion statewide.

There were 22 competitors in three age group divisions in Baton Rouge.

Koesel is the area’s best and hopeful she can improve enough to attract college attention when it becomes an NCAA event next year.

“To be honest, her marks are still a bit soft,” said her vault coach, Eric Allison. “USA track and field qualifying is 11-9. She’s not far off of that and it’s our hope she can do those types of heights before she’s out of high school.”

Future success will rest upon Koesel’s ability to adapt to a longer and heavier pole.

“Right now it’s a mental thing,” she said. “It’s stiffer than others and it takes me up a lot faster. Once I get used to it and know I can vault on it, I think it will help out a lot.”

Koesel is a soccer and basketball player who said she wasn’t going to turn out for track as a freshman.

“I don’t like to run,” she said, making an exception for soccer. “Coach talked me into it.”

A few weeks later she was recruited to try the pole vault.

“It was kind of different and I wouldn’t be running all the time,” she said. “I thought it was kind of cool.”

She took immediately to the event. Her 10-foot best is just a foot from the unofficial Washington record. The women’s national record is 14-7-1/4 by Stacy Dragila of Pocatello, Idaho.

“She’s pretty hooked right now,” said Allison. “She wants to keep practicing and I’m certainly not discouraging her at all.”

The trip to Baton Rouge met Koesel’s goal of qualifying for the national event. She finished second in near 100-degree heat and high humidity on the campus of Southern University.

But she doesn’t want to stop there.

“I don’t want to sound too confident,” said Koesel. “But I just think I can do a lot better.”

, DataTimes