Vaulters

Bailey, who was third among the Winder-Barrow vaulters last season, stepped into the starting rotation this year following Breanna McNamara’s graduation after a third-place finish at state and rose to the occasion.

State champion wrestler Tanner Lees is one of the top pole vaulters in the league — he vaulted over a 13-foot bar to win the Panther Invite.

With only 40 players on this year’s squad, O’Brien said newcomers will have to share the load of expectations, including freshman distance runner Titus Bretzke and sophomore pole vaulters Kevin Collins and J.D. Johansen.

A jump-off is a sudden death competition in which the tied vaulters attempt the same height, starting with the last attempted height.

Fly-away This is often highly emphasized by spectators and novice vaulters, but it is arguably the easiest phase of the vault and is a result of proper execution of previous phases.

If both vaulters miss, the bar goes down by a small increment, and if both clear, the bar goes up by a small increment.

If the tied vaulters have the same number of misses at the last height cleared, the tie is broken by the total number of misses in the competition.

If two or more vaulters have finished with the same height, the tie is broken by the number of misses at the final height.

The introduction of flexible vaulting poles in the early 1950s made from composites such as fiberglass or carbon fiber allowed vaulters to achieve greater height.

Top class vaulters use approaches with 18 to 22 strides, often referred to as a "step" in which every other foot is counted as one step.

Vaulters will usually count their steps backwards from their starting point to the box only counting the steps taken on the left foot (vice versa for left-handers) except for the second step from the box, which is taken by the right foot.