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County vaulter soars over record
Special to The Journal
BALTIMORE
Magruder senior Andrew Bevan cleared the old Maryland class B/C pole vault record of 13-feet-0 on his second jump of the evening Thursday at Baltimore's National Guard Armory.
Three vaults later he established the B/C mark at 13-9, clearing both 13-6 and 13-9 on his first attempt.
After confering with officials, Bevan had the bar moved to 14 1/2, a good 10 inches above the top of Bevan's 14-foot pole when it was planted in the box.
"If he makes this," said pole vault referee Jerry Martin, "it'll be the best technical jump I've ever seen at the high school level. A good vaulter should be able to jump a foot to a foot-and-a-half over the end of his pole, but I've never seen a high school vaulter who could do it."
It also would rank as the second highest vault in state history. Richard Montgomery's Tim Down's cleared 14-3 in 1977. The closest anyone had come to that was in 1980 when Peary's Grant Wagner cleared 13-6 1/4.
But Bevan failed on all three attempts at that height.
"I've cleared 14 (feet) in practice," said Bevan, an unknown before Thursday night. Now, according to Martin, Bevan will have plenty of college coaches after him. "I wanted to use a 15 (15-foot pole), but I haven't been able to handle it in practice. I guess it's still a little too much of a pole for me. I'm more sure of the pole I used here."
Bevan, slight for a vaulter at 5-foot-11, 140 pounds, says he started experimenting with the sport by using a bamboo pole in his back yard when he was 12 years old. He advanced to a fiberglass pole in ninth grade and his best jump through last year's outdoor season was the 12-6 that netted him a fourth place finish in the state meet.
This past summer Bevan honed his skills at a pole vaulting camp. Now technique is the main focus of the vaulting workouts he attends twice a week.
"I really don't do much running in practice," Bevan said. "We're expected to do that outside. We stretch, then do pop-ups and long runs. We don't really spend much time working with the bar either, just pop-throughs. We work on technique a lot. I've got to work on driving my knee, getting a good kick-up and getting my hips up. I also have to work on my speed."
While he still lacks the skills and strength to move up to a longer and heavier pole, Bevan's missing nothing in the way of confidence. His best in competition this year, which included two open meets at the University of Maryland and the regional meet last week, was the 13-0 regional jump. Yet Thursday he decided to pass until 11-6.
Then, his major competition, Glenelg's Chuck Browning, who set a meet record at the National Guard meet early in the month at 13-1, opted to sit out until 12-0. Bevan followed suit.
"If it came down to misses, I just wanted to be with him and come in at 12, just in case," Bevan said. "I was expecting to at least clear 13-6. And I don't really think about it, I just kind of go up and do it."
When the top two seeds in the fast heat of the 300m run did not line up, Woodward's Matt Fonner and Poolesville's Irvin Smith were left to duel for first and second place.
Fonner, a senior whose best indoor state performance was as a member of Woodward's first-place two-mile relay team last year, caught Smith on the final turn and beat him to the tape, 37.9-38.0. Both competitors bettered their 1-2 regional finish where they were both timed in 38.4.
"I think I have more natural talent than the kind you get through working hard," said Fonner, 17. "Each time I just try to do my best. If I don't get the lead, I try to stay with them."
Smith, an All-County running back and the county's leading rusher on Poolesville's runner-up state football team this fall, is trying indoor track for the first time.
Not a complete novice to the track, however, the Poolesville junior has been runner-up in the state outdoor 220 the past two years.
"I'm pretty good at football, but I won't get a basketball scholarship, so I decided to run indoors this year," said Smith. "It's taking a while to get used to it, the atmosphere is a lot different, but I like it. I'm running the 300 mainly to get ready for the 220. In my first two meets I wasn't used to those extra meters, the endurance caught up to me."
Smith failed to qualify for the 55m dash, but Einstein sophomore LaDonna Gooden did. She also won her trials heat of the 55m hurdles, which was run right before the dash.
In the finals Gooden took third in the hurdles with a 9.1 and was fifth in the dash at 7.7.
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