Thursday, March 9, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 11
Sports
Pole vaulter soars to new heights
By Sarah Warren
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Andrea Branson stares down the runway, pole in hand.
She hears the crowd screaming, the throwers grunting, the rambling of the announcer's voice. Through the corner of her eye, she sees a line of bodies in red and blue warm-ups planted along the right side of the runway. She narrows her eyes.
The announcer, throwers and crowd all turn mute, only the rhythmic clapping of her teammates remain.
She checks her steps and stares down the runway at the bar suspended 13 feet in the air. Rolling onto her heel, she lifts her pole towards the rafters and launches herself down the runway
The amount of clapping increases with each step, until the pole plants in the box and Branson is airborne, hoisting her body over the bar. She falls to the mat, elated.
This is the case for Branson again and again — enjoy the atmosphere, block out the atmos-
enjoy the atmosphere, block out the atmosphere and perform an incredible vault. And there is no doubt about it, her formula works.
This year alone, the junior pole vaulter from Prairie Village has racked up six first-place finishes, each time jumping 13 feet or more. She is ranked fourth in the nation going into this weekend's NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
But with all the technical aspects of pole vaulting, Branson's success began with a little luck. She had an unplanned run-in with the sport at a jump camp run by Kansas combined-events coach Rick Attig.
"My sophomore year of high school I was a valuer for a week. In fact, I only competed in one meet, so I guess you could say that I was a valuer for a day," Branson said. "Then I went to one of coach Attig's jump camps that summer and loved it."
And not only did she love it, she was one of the first females to do it. The event was not sanctioned by Kansas high schools — so when she did vault a few times in competition, her score wasn't added to the team score.
All of this showed Attig that she had a thirst for more.
"It was very rare to have a girl at camp. She was probably the first girl, and I didn't even know if there were a lot of girls jumping in Kansas at the time," he said. "You can really tell who has a passion for the event — she really did — and I really felt strongly that if I had time to work with her, that she'd be really good."
Pole vaulter Andrea Branson races down the runway as she prepares to hoist herself over the bar. Fourth-ranked Branson will compete this weekend in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
KANSAN file photo
But Branson knew her chances of becoming a full-time pole vaulter were pretty slim because the NCAA had yet to sanction the event.
Instead, she competed regularly as a triple, long and high jumper and won the 1997 Kansas state triple jump title with a school-record setting jump of 36.5 while at Shawnee Mission East. And, she signed her senior year with Johnson County Community College as a multi-event athlete.
But one phone call changed all that.
Detect one phone call to manage.
"I happened to get a phone call from coach Attig one day, and he was talking about how we were gong to have it as an NCAA event," Branson said. "I was like, 'Pole vault for you?'
So in 1998, Branson and Ashley Feinberg became the first women ever recruited to Kansas for pole vaulting.
Where's the paper? Where do I sign?"
Since her freshman year, Branson has qualified for four NCAA Championships, placing as high as third place in the indoor competition her sophomore year. This weekend will mark her fourth trip to the competition.
She holds the Kansas indoor and outdoor records, at 13"2" and 13"4", respectively, and is a two-time Big 12 Champion and a three-time All-American. All this while juggling practice with her major — computer engineering.
Coming in her freshman year, Branson realized she had a long way to go while practicing with now-junior Feinberg, who was the nation's best female high school pole vaulter.
"Ashley probably jumped two feet higher than me," Branson said. "It just proves that awesome coaches can make up such a big gap."
In fact, Branson thinks the credit for her success is solely due to Attig.
"A good coach makes a good pole vault," she said. "He taught me everything that works."
Branson works almost 20 hours a week on the runway and in the weight room with Attig and the other full-time pole vaulters, Feinberg, junior Greg Steele, sophomore Justin Stancil and freshman Vadim Govdzetski.
"We push each other more than we actually compete against each other. We're more like a basketball team," Branson said. "We can get marks for each other to help push along and adjust our performances."
But Branson, one of three team captains, has made sure not to stay only in her little corner of Anschutz Sports Pavilion.
"Our practices are very divided — the pole vaulters are very confined to the mat — but she's made a decided effort to get to know everyone on the team this year," said Steele of Branson. "She's pretty much memorized the media guide and knows everyone's name and what year they are."
Knowing her teammates is crucial part of Branson's role as team captain.
"My responsibilities as captain are to lead by example and to be a good listener and a good communicator between the coaches and athletes," she said.
And Branson takes her words to heart, too
And Branson takes her words to heart, too: "The real leaders distinguish themselves by getting outside of their area and concerning themselves with others, and it is a genuine concern," said track coach Gary Schwartz. "It is people like Andrea who really help make the difference."
By Zac Hunter
Women's tennis smashes Tigers in conference meet
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
One team at Kansas never has much of a problem beating Missouri — it has done it 18 times.
The Kansas women's tennis team pushed its winning streak against Missouri to 19 last night after winning their second conference meet of the season.
The Jayhawks won the meet 7-2, and are now 2-0 in the Big 12 conference and 8-2 overall.
Kansas came out smoking, ending Missouri's chances of victory by winning five of the six singles matches. The lone singles loss was at the No. 4 position when Tiffany Chang lost to fellow freshman Kristina Olshanskaya, 5-7, 2-7.
Coach Jenny Garrity said she was pleased that her team won many of the points that were at either deuce or advantage. She said she also was happy with her team's performance and on trying to cut down on its mental mistakes.
Kim Lorenz, Omaha, Neb., freshman, competes in her first match this spring. Despite losing, Lorenz said she was happy with her overall performance. Photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
"I thought everybody did a good job considering I told them, literally, right before they walked on the court."
Jenny Garrity
Tennis coach
Following a break, the doubles teams took the court with a new player. Freshman walk-on Kim Lorenz saw her first action of the spring when she was paired with freshman Lisa Malliaiah, but lost 6-8.
Despite losing, Lorenz said she was happy to get back on the court but that she had too many errors. She attributed those errors to her lack of play, but said she was satisfied with her performance overall.
The change was made after the meet had technically been won, and Garrity said her players did a nice job adjusting to the player change, considering how little time they had before their matches.
"I thought everybody did a good job considering I told them, literally, right before they walked on the court," Garrity said.
While Garrity was happy with the way her team played, she said the change would not have been made if Missouri had a chance to win the meet with a doubles sweep. The combinations of senior Brooke Chiller and freshman Cheryl Mallaiah and sophmore Christi Wagenaar and senior Julia Sidorova both won their matches.
Next up for the 'Hawks is a meet against nationally-ranked Minnesota. The No. 59 Golden Gophers are 6-3 on the season and, like Kansas, lost to Ohio State earlier this year.
The meet is at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Alvamar Tennis and Swim Club, 4120 Clinton Parkway.