March 29, 2024

Pole vault team travels to Reno, Nevada for national competition

Costa junior pole vaulter Jake Nicosia pole vaults over a bar at practice. Nicosia competed and set a new personal record in the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno.

Tess Whittet

Staff Writer

Costa’s pole vaulting team successfully cleared its competition at a tournament in Reno, Nevada during the Jan. 7 National Pole Vault Summit.

The team, consisting of 12 members, travelled to Reno to compete in individual matches against 1,100 other students. The competition hosted participants of all levels, with each contestant judged individually.

Official results from the competition

“The competition gives our vaulters a goal and a purpose to work harder on their grades and on their training, and it gets them all fired up,” Costa coach Murray Mead said. “I have been prepping them for this since the start of the year, and we have been training with this in mind.”

Photos: Pole Vault practice after Reno competition

Top performers included sophomore vaulter Brigette Grau, who set a new Costa girls sophomore record by clearing a 11’4” bar but fell short of winning her division. Sophomore Alex Beaudin and freshman Isaac Brill clinched the win in their respective divisions.

“I was just proud at how the day had gone,” Grau said. “At the end of it, talking to my coach about what I could do to improve was my priority.”

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The other Costa competitors included sophomore Daniel Budoff; junior Gus Oury; sophomore Nicholas Parsons; freshman Aidan Purcell; freshman Rory Schelly; sophomore James Suarez; junior Jake Nicosia and senior Dane Thomasson. In the competition, six of the 12 Costa vaulters got personal bests.

Photos: Freshman Aidan Purcell performs a  warm up while running with the pole vault stick and leaping over cones placed on the floor.

“The most beneficial part of this event wasn’t the competition itself but was actually the day before, when we had time to talk to professional athletes and ask all sorts of questions on how to improve our vaulting, different drills we could do to focus on specific parts of the vault and also get to know them a little better,” Nicosia said.

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