Bruins prove mettle during Reno Summit
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 22, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 MINDY ROSS/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Junior
Heather Sickler, shown here vaulting at USC last
May, competed over the weekend at the Reno Pole Vault Summit.
By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The opening meet is a time to gauge the development of the
athletes.
This is what the UCLA pole vaulters used the Reno Pole Vault
Summit for over the weekend.
The meet that attracted hundreds of pole vaulters and coaches
from around the nation provided an opportunity for competing
athletes to learn from some of the best. Olympians, including gold
medalist Stacy Dragila, were on hand to give instruction.
And after the clinic, the competition began. With multiple
divisions of collegiate, open and high school competition, the
majority of UCLA pole vaulters competed in the top tiers of the
collegiate division.
In previous years, collegians, such as junior Tracy
O’Hara, had been allowed to compete in the open division, but
with a change in the structure of the meet, all eligible athletes
were in the collegiate meet.
Senior Erika Hoernig, whose indoor eligibility has been used up,
did compete in the open division. She won it with a vault of
12-feet-6.
“It was kind of interesting because it was kind of a
hodgepodge of people,” Hoernig said. “The bar started
at 8-feet, so there was a range of PRs (personal records) from
about 9-6 to about 13-7.”
O’Hara won the Collegiate I women’s division
competition with a vault of 13-6.
Though well below her PR of 14-7, which she notched last year,
it is a good starting mark at this point in the season.
“She jumped approximately the same height last year and
had some good jumps up to 13-10 or 14,” said Anthony Curran,
UCLA pole vault coach. “But her 13-6 jump was
solid.”
“We’re right on track of where we should have been
about this time this year,” he added.
But O’Hara’s win didn’t come easily, as she
went back and forth with Andrea Dutoit of the University of
Arizona.
Dutoit had the edge at 13-0, as O’Hara cleared the height
on her second attempt, but she came back at the final height,
clearing it on her first attempt, to win.
“She was really tough and was back into her competitive
mode,” Curran said.
Also with a strong performance was sophomore Karen Bewley, who
PR’d with her mark of 11-11 and won the Collegiate II
women’s division.
Rounding out the UCLA women pole vaulters were junior Heather
Sickler, who jumped a 12-0 and sophomore Bridget Pearson and
freshman Gail Larsen, who both scored marks of 11-3.
Leading the men’s squad were senior Steve Michaels,
sophomore Jared Drake and freshman Yoo Kim, who all notched a 16-4
3/4 jump.
The indoor squad will take this weekend off, in preparation for
the Invitational at Northern Arizona University on Feb. 2-3.
