Blake's Grant Krieger heads down the runway. Photo by Gene Niemi |
The boys started it all on Friday morning when Mitchell Valli of Buffalo captured the Class AA championship by clearing 15'7.5" to set a new State Meet standard for the AA vault. He then had the bar raised to 16'1" because that was the accepted standard among the "Three Muskateers of Minnesota HS vaulting,"--Valli, The Blake School's Grant Kreiger, who would be vaulting later in the Class A competition, and Lakeville South's Lee Bares, who failed to qualify to compete in the State meet.
The trio had been jumping higher and higher throughout the year. Much of it chronicled in a May Star Tribune article HERE Kreiger vaulted 16'1.25" at the New Balance Indoor Nationals. Bares had cleared 15'9" and Kreiger went over 16' this spring. All this leaving the status of what is the Minnesota All Time record uncertain as the "paperwork" for "ratification" of these accomplishments as records. (article to appear on soon on DtB "When is a record a record?" will try to explain the record keeping process as the pole vault record is not the only one that is different depending on where you look).
Adrianna Jacobs is congratualted after clearing a Class AA girls record in the pole vault of 13'. Photo by Gene Niemi |
The Blake senior was confident, not only of clearing 16', but that he also had a shot at at least 16'6", he said. He'd cleared 17', his ultimate goal this season, in practice, he added, but all those plans changed when a groin strain made icing the injury and merely winning the competition "Plan B" for Saturday's competition. Krieger and Pequot Lakes junior Tyler Tappe tied for the Class A title at a height a foot below what Krieger intended, 15'6".
Rochester Century High's Andrianna Jacobs didn't have any of the difficulty encountered by the boys. She cleared the bar at 13' with room to spare to set the new standard for girls, setting the undisputed All-Time record and winning the Class AA title. (Read more later in a longer piece to be on DtB soon. "anatomy of a Record." The story of how the record happened.)
A treasure trove of photos from the meet on the MSHSL Facebook page HERE.
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