Interviews - Competition Footage - Full Results Coming Soon
The Summer Festival of the Hudson Valley Flying Circus on Friday July 8 and Saturday July 9 at The Barn in Warwick Valley pulled in some national champions, a pack of All-Americans, a half dozen state champs and a regional (New England) champ, some former state champs for the college Open action, plus a number of absolute pole vault beginners. Fun ran rampant along with pithy tips from the man now known as the Pole Vault Whisperer (Coach Tim St. Lawrence) and his hard working crew including Stephanie Duffy and Bob Sorensen.
Tops on the day on the guys side were High Point bound NY state champ Nick Lourenco of St. Anthony's and MA state champ and record holder (17-1.5) Jack Vecellio (Frontier MA/ on to Clemson) who placed 5th and 3rd respectively at New Balance Outdoor Nationals and reached 15-8 in HVFC's Saturday Senior action. Both guys came back for more fun in Exhibition mode in the later College\Open event. Lourenco induced some major concern when he had a roller coaster ride down the right standard during his first attempt at 14-2, but despite fears that he might be out of action for a few months, he got back into the vaulting about ten minutes later for two more attempts. Some editing of videos was needed to erase a few seconds of extreme gruesomeness.
Tops in the College/Open section at 15-2 was Dane Sorensen (Warwick Valley/Cortland State), while the Masters division was won at 12-3 by 50-year-old John Mraz of Edison NJ, whose son Jason Mraz of Kutztown State and Shaun Herlihy (Northern Highlands/Ithaca) had the second best C/O clearances at 14-8.
At others of the boys events, Matthew Aono of Ridgewood NJ was the tops in the Junior event at 14-2, Ryan Hoo of Pope John XXIII was at 9-8 in Soph, Matthew Herbert of Newark Academy went to 12-8 in Frosh, and Luke Beattie of Warwick Valley set a meet record at 12-2 in Middle School action.
In the women's action on Saturday four PVers went to 11-8 to match the Soph winning height from Friday. Rachel Mason of High Point NJ went to 11-8 in Senior action with her fellow UConn bound future teammate Madison Chalfin of Clarkstown South at 11-2. A trio at 11-8 in the Junior event included NBON Rising Stars runner-up Emma Keating of Pompton Lakes NJ, NBON RS champ Tatum Norris, and CT state champ Ellison Weiner of Weston. The College/Open tops were Lilly Brown (Lakeland NJ/Manhattan) and Jamie Rossig (Pascack Hills NJ/Ithaca) at 10-2, Kaitlyn (Cross) Sauer of Suffern (C'09) stepped up for the Masters win at a peachy 9-2.
At the younger levels for the girls, Lily Beattie of Warwick Valley and Ella Galloway cleared 11-8 in Soph action, NBON Freshman champ Rachel Venter of Warwick Valley was at 10-8 for frosh, and Kate Anderson of Monroe-Woodbury was at 6-8 for Middle School.
And finally, besides the tons of gratitude toward all the helpers from the HVFC orbit, big kudos are also sent out to the big pack from Branko Miric's Apex Vaulting group in NJ and Long Island for their help and their big performances. A feature on the Joel Barlow CT freshman Jordan Carr (2nd in CT state PV championship) and her exploits on the American Ninja Warrior extreme athletic competition entertainment series is in the works.