Monday, March 03, 2008

Ben Peterson Aims Higher

DtB correspondent Sean Hartnett spoke with Gopher Sophomore Ben Peterson, Big Ten Indoor Pole Vault Champion.

DTB: The pole vault was a good competition with a lot of jumps, but the last two heights sorted things out.

BP: Yeah, it really came down to the last couple of heights. There were two of us that made 16'10 and 3/4s. I pretty much had to try to make every bar on the first attempt.

DTB : Was that your goal, to keep a clean slate?

BP: Most definitely. I think from third place to eighth place had the same height, and it just came down to misses.

DTB: With all the vaulters you had to deal with some long waits between attempts.

BP: Oh yeah. You really have to stay focused no matter how long a gap there is between jumps. But it was nice to have a lot of guys around to push you and make you go higher.

DTB: Sophomore Big Ten Indoor Champ, you’re on track for a big season.

BP: Most definitely. I’m pretty happy, pretty pleased. I have a last chance meet coming up next weekend. We’ll see how that goes. I’ll probably have to make 5.30 or 5.33 (meters), which is like 17' 5ish. It just comes down to executing a jump on any given height. Anything can happen.

DTB: You also have good crew of Gopher vaulters to work with.

BP: Most definitely. It is good to get input from all sides. Especially at practice when you are competing with each other, and everybody is pushing each other to go higher. It really makes a difference.

Photo by Sean Hartnett

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