Gutsy move gives vaulter school record

Every athlete dreams of holding winning or losing in the palm of his or her hand. Be it in the bottom of the ninth inning, the final seconds of the Final Four or the last two minutes of the Super Bowl.

For Joe McFarlane, it was an hour after the rest of the Prosser Invitational had been run and every athlete from the Ellensburg and Central Valley track teams was standing around the pole vault pit.

If McFarlane won, the Bears were champions.

McFarlane won.

“It was so great to have all those kids gathered around watching those two guys battle each other,” CV coach Chuck Bowden said. “It was a great competition.”

McFarlane missed on his first attempt at 13 feet 6 inches, but his opponent, from Ellensburg, cleared.

“I was standing there when Dennis McGuire, the girls coach and my pole vault coach when I was a freshman came over to me,” McFarlane said. “He said, ‘Do you want to win this?’ I said, ‘Yeah I want to win this.’ He said ‘Then skip it up.’ “

He did and, after clearing 14-0 on his next vault, won the meet.

He then pushed the bar up to 14-7 and cleared that as well, establishing a new school record.

“After it was all over, I stopped and thought about that move – skipping the bar up to 14 feet,” McFarlane said. “It was a great move, a gutsy move. I’m glad they thought of it.”

McFarlane topped the mark set by Dennis Folsom in 1994.

Friday McFarlane cleared a mark he set himself last year – one he would sooner forget.

“I no-heighted at districts last year,” he explained. “I had a pretty good year last year. I’d cleared 13-6, but I didn’t make a qualifying height at districts and that sat with me all summer long.”

McFarlane came into this season determined to erase that memory and reach his goal of vaulting at Star Track, the state championship meet in Pasco.

Bowden figured his vaulter was ready to break out during basketball season.

“I saw him jump up and get a good hold on the rim during a warm-up,” the coach said. “I could tell he’d improved his vertical. Plus, he’d had a good season with the basketball team and that had helped his confidence.”

From the beginning of track practice McFarlane has been a team leader and one of the team’s most consistent competitors.

Which is not easy in the pole vault.

“It takes a lot of work to do the pole vault,” Bowden said. “You put in some long hours. You’re there long after the rest of the team is done.”

By clearing 14-0 at the district meet last week, McFarlane advances to Yakima this weekend. The top four vaulters there qualify for state.

“There’s an automatic qualifier of 14-8,” McFarlane said. “If I clear that, I qualify for state no matter where I place. So my goal is to clear 14-8 and then see what happens.

“I figure I’m going to have to clear 15-0 to have any chance at state. Maybe 15-6.”

It’s not uncommon to see a vaulter increase his personal best by a foot or more in one meet, McFarlane pointed out.

“One of our other vaulters increased his PR (personal record) by a foot-and-a-half at the Prosser meet,” he said. “It’s just a matter of everything coming together at the right time.”