* Warwick Valley's Luke Beattie is making his way up the pole vault charts in 2024
Photo Credit: MileSplit New York
- - -
It has been a banner year for the Beatties of Warwick Valley thus far.
Senior Lily Beattie leads New York state in the pole vault with a personal best of 13 feet, 2 inches. It's the highest clearance by a New Yorker since the state record of 14-3 was set back in 2020 by Leah Pasqualetti.
Then there's Lily's brother, Luke Beattie, only a sophomore, who is also making his mark on the record boards.
Three times this year, Luke has broken the sophomore state record in the pole vault. The mark was originally held by Shane Racey of Ravena, who cleared 15-1 back in 2018.
Beattie opened his season at the Barn -- his hometown vaulting club -- with a clearance of 15-3. The mark was set in October, before the official season, so it wouldn't count for state seeding.
But once he got onto the Armory runway, it wouldn't matter. On Dec. 22, he cleared 15-6.25 to win the competition, in the process setting a new state-leading mark for New York.
This past weekend, he returned to the Armory and cleared an even 15-7 to win again.
He took good attempts at 16-1, which would be the equal of the junior state record (although he would be ineligible to erase that until next year).
Records aren't new to Luke, though.
He set the seventh-grade state record at 10-8 in 2021. By the eighth-grade, he was up to 11-9, albeit shy of the eighth-grade state record of 13-3.5.
By his freshman year, he was back in the books, ultimately bettering the first-year record by nearly a foot, with a new best of 14-5.25. By the outdoor season, he was at 15-4.
The Beattie's encouraged by both their parents, who are former Warwick athletes and vaulters themselves.
Rich and Melanie Beattie even put together a vaulting runway in their backyard for their kids.
That kind of early intervention allowed Lily Beattie to set the freshman state record back in 2020, albeit now having been bettered. She's now the state leader, with more than a few medals under her belt at the state level.
She picked up silver in 2023, to another of her training partners. She cleared 13-0.25 outdoors to qualify for the New York state meet, but an uneasy day had her foul out on her opening height once there.
Beattie is getting ever better, however, and now stands at New York No. 7 all-time in the event indoors. Her school record is within reach, too, and stands at 13-6.25.
Earlier this season, Beattie committed to University of Mississippi and now has the extra stress of college recruitment off her shoulders. As the season progress, we should see her stock continually going up.
