Pole vaulter to move on from UCLA after successful year

Natasha Kolbo’s favorite year of college is coming to an end.

With mainly the NCAA preliminaries and finals remaining in the outdoor track and field season, the pole vaulter will be one of several graduating seniors whose days as members on the UCLA track and field team are winding down.

It was a struggle for Kolbo to narrow her many days of training and competing as a Bruin over the past four years to just one moment she could confidently call her favorite.

“That is a hard question,” Kolbo said, before breaking into a laugh.

It took her a few seconds, but she came up with an answer.

“I’ll probably have to say this year; it was the second home meet.”

What really made the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational stand out for her wasn’t winning her event – it was who finished second beside her and who she could celebrate with.

“I made it over my last try and she was right there, giving me a hug afterward,” said junior pole vaulter Elena Clarke, Kolbo’s best friend. “It was a great feeling. We both felt really good about the day and it was really cool to both do that – it was really special.”

After some time to ponder over the conundrum, Kolbo came up with a revised answer. Attached to it was a reason why this year happens to be the favorite of her four at UCLA.

“I don’t know – it’s really hard to describe. I wouldn’t say I have necessarily one favorite but probably multiple favorites,” she said. “And most of them are because I got lucky enough to travel with Elena, which has just been a huge blessing to me.”

The duo first met at the same gymnastics program as elementary schoolers, but their friendship was only sporadic after the program split and made them go their separate ways. But their similar paths as athletes would intersect again when they became familiar faces in a club pole vaulting program for high schoolers.

For Clarke, her next year at UCLA will be the first without her best friend. She took a moment of hesitation before approaching that topic.

“It’s definitely something I haven’t fully thought about yet because I don’t want to,” Clarke said. “I’ll really just miss her presence. We’re around each other so much that I think I just took it for granted the last three years that she’s always going to be there to say something funny or make me feel better or just … to laugh with.”

While Clarke will have to deal with missing the person whom she jokes about being “soul mates” with, the rest of the team will be missing a role model.

As the leading pole vaulter on the women’s team, Kolbo and the heights she clears have become something her teammates can look up to. But more than just numbers, it’s also about what she does to reach them.

“Her leadership and her toughness in adversity – she’s had some down meets. Her toughness … and her focus is something the other girls can see,” said pole vault coach Anthony Curran. “I’m gonna miss having that big dog around.”

One of those “down meets” happened in the regular season closer against USC, where Kolbo’s highest clearance measured at 12 feet, 6 1/4 inches – a far cry from what she’s used to.

With her next meet being the Pac-12 championships, the odds seemed stacked against Kolbo, but it was there and then in Pullman, Wash., that she echoed her coach’s words through her actions. Kolbo didn’t just bounce back to her usual standards – she overshadowed them, recording a new lifetime best of 13 feet, 10 1/2 inches.

“Coach (Mike) Maynard and Coach Curran always say you have 24 hours to be excited about how you perform or upset if you perform poorly,” Kolbo said. “It’s important to be able to put it behind you … and move on and realize that even if you don’t do your best, you are exactly where you need to be, and you come out of that experience learning something so you’re prepared for the next set.”

When mid-June finally creeps up, Kolbo will bid farewell to Westwood. Unfortunately for the Bruins, their best women’s pole vaulter will also be taking her talent and passion for pole vaulting with her.

With a coach lined up to guide her in the pro circuit, she’s more than ready to aim for bigger aspirations as she takes her pole vaulting career to the next level.

“Hopefully you guys will see me someday on the big screen,” she said. “You know, I’m going to try to go the whole way.”

Kolbo’s best year of college might be coming to an end, but her best years of pole vaulting may still be waiting ahead.