Congratulations to Sondre Guttormsen and Amanda Fassold on winning the NCAA Championships. It almost felt reminiscent of the 2015 NCAA championships that saw Shawn Barber and Jake Blankenship both clear 5.80m before Shawn ultimately cleared 5.91m. This time, Sondre and Zach Bradford just took it up a notch, both clearing 5.91m before Sondre ultimately cleared a personal best, national record, and facility record of 6 meters.

The men’s competition started off at 5.31 or about 17’5” and saw everyone who entered at the height clear - honestly, pretty amazing for NCAAs. However, there was one surprising no height of the competition. Branson Ellis who had just set a recent personal best elected to start the competition at 5.56m and was unable to clear his first bar. It also was not Keaton Daniel’s best day. The vaulter who has a personal best of 5.75m was only able to clear 5.56m. It appears Keaton started skipping heights to focus on place finishes. He skipped 5.61m all together, missed his first two at 5.66m, and then skipped to 5.71m where he missed his last attempt.

Amazingly, six athletes would go on to set a new personal best in the competition. Alexander Slinkman or Rice would clear 5.51m to secure himself a top 10 finish. Garrett Brown of Stanford cleared 5.56m for 8th. Then, every vaulter in the top 4 needed a personal best to finish where they did.

4th. Trevor Stephenson with 5.66m

3rd. Kyle Rademeyer with 5.71m

2nd. Zach Bradford with 5.91m

1st. Sondre Guttormsen with 6.00m

While Mondo uses Pacer Carbons, 11 of the 16 male vaulters jumped on UCS poles.

Women’s pole vault was the first event of the whole meet, beginning at 2 local time on Friday. In the women’s competition, we saw a likely and unlikely outcome. The incredibly close competition saw a three way tie at 4.45m that would only be separated by misses at 4.40m. Your 2023 NCAA Indoor Women’s Pole Vault Champion is Amanda Fassold of Arkansas. After a third attempt clear at 4.35m, it was first attempt clearances at 4.40m and 4.45m that gave Amanda the win of Olivia Leuking who needed all three attempts to get over 4.40m. But, the competition continues as it was Marleen Mulla of South Dakota who was in first for the entire competition up to 4.45m. Marleen was the only vaulter with a totally clean scorecard entering the height but cleared 4.45m on her second attempt which bumped her down to third.

In a meet with several women with personal bests over 4.50m we saw no vaulters clear such height and only two vaulters clear personal bests. Unfortunately for the Horn sisters it wasn’t there day, Mackenzie no heighted and Sydney cleared 4.20m - a foot below her personal best.

Not only did Amanda Fassold win the Women’s Pole Vault title, but Arkansas won the women’s team title as well.

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In the girls pole vault championship division, Veronica Vacca, a sophomore, won with 4.15m over juniors Madelyn Kelly and Iliana Downing who cleared 4.05m and 3.95m, respectively. Considering all three vaulters are returning next year, it should be a heck of a competition again between the same girls. The competition was tight, as Veronica and Madelyn both had completely clean scorecards entering 4.05m, but with Veronica clearing on her second and Madelyn clearing on her third, Veronica took the competition from there.

The competition opened at 3.35m or just under 11 feet and moved up 15cm or about 6 inches at a time until it moved 10cm after 3.95m. Overall 40 vaulters cleared a height! A photo of Veronica and her coach Brian Mondschein of Philly Jumps Club is below. In college, Brian jumped at Virginia Tech and was a three time All-American.

In the men’s division, it was the top returner Maddox Hamm who won the competition by 8 inches after a rocky start. With an opening bar of 14’3.25”, 25 vaulters cleared at least one bar and it took at least a first attempt clearance at 15’9” to get into the top 8. Amazingly, with 11 vaulters clearing 15’9” or 4.80m only three of them would go on to clear the next height of 4.95m. This could be an indicator to New Balance that perhaps it’s better to move 10cm at a time once you get to the upper 4m range. The three vaulters who would go on were Maddox Hamm, Wyatt Stewart, and Dyson Wicker.

In fact, 4.95m was Maddox’s opening bar, and with a first attempt clearance he secured himself a spot on the podium. All three vaulters would go on to clear 5.10m, but no one on their first attempt. 5.20 meters or just above 17 feet would be the height that finally knocks out one of the three vaulters - Dyson Wicker. Going into 5.30m it was Wyatt who was ahead on misses but Maddox came out with a first attempt clearance and never looked back from there. With Wyatt unable to clear 5.30m, Maddox took home the gold and cleared the next height 5.40m also on first attempt. Maddox (seen below) will be joining the Virginia Tech Hokies next year.

Hosted at the well known New York City Armory, Nike Indoor Nationals is the official NFHS affiliated high school national meet. After an opening height of 4.28m, the competition was won with 5.21m by Cody Johnston. The meet saw four vaulters clear 4.88m or 16 feet but Cody was the only vaulter able to clear 5.08m and above. Freshman phenoms Isaiah Whitake and Victor Oleson took second and fifth with 4.98m and 4.73m respectively.

Double click on Isaiah’s post below to see the full post on Instagram.

In the women’s competition, it was Emily Romano who came away with the gold at 3.97m or just above 13 feet. In a competition that only saw 16 girls enter, 13 of them cleared at least 12 feet!

Overall, both meets gave vaulters the opportunity to experience a level of competition and venue quality they may never get to experience over the course of their regular season. In much of the country, athletes don’t have a true indoor season or only compete at indoor facilities that only permit sneakers. Nike and New Balance give vaulters the opportunity to show what they’ve got when it counts. It still appears that New Balance is the meet of choice and was a bit more competitive on both the boy’s and girl’s side. With Nike now having NFHS backing, it’ll be interesting to see how the meet evolves over time. With Nike being a more popular brand among the teen populous, it’ll be interesting to see how or if high school culture impacts the attendance of these meets. For most vaulters, it will likely remain a question of which their club or other vaulters in their club are going to attend.