ROCHESTER, N.Y. – St. Norbert College (SNC) senior Aiden Anderson can add national champion next to his name.
The Germantown native claimed the national championship in the pole vault at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships at Golisano Training Center in Rochester, New York, March 14-15.
Anderson’s height of 16 feet, 10 3/4 inches (5.15 meters) was tops among the 20 participants.
“For the most part, it was nice for a few minutes (after winning the championship), but it hasn’t set in yet because I have my eyes on outdoor nationals,” Anderson said.
Anderson was the only participant among three competitors to attempt the winning height, clearing on his second try.
He had cleared his first five heights on the first try.
“With pole vault, especially for a competition where a lot of athletes can go high, it’s not uncommon to have a meet finish where three people get over the same bar and no one clears the next one,” Anderson said. “The deciding factor is they look at previous misses, so having no misses through my first five attempts was a huge piece. Obviously, I put the nail in the coffin by clearing the next bar, but had I not, I still would have won because I was clean in my previous heights.”
Anderson eclipsed his old SNC record by 3 1/4 inches, experimenting with using a larger pole during the competition.
“I look at (using a larger pole) more like a high-risk, high-reward situation,” he said. “It’s risky to go up a pole because that means it’s weighted heavier, which is harder to bend, and it will unbend a lot quicker. It’s definitely a risky situation, but also, when you’re getting up to those heights, you need a pole that’s going to throw you.”
His national championship is the fifth for SNC men’s track and field and only the second at indoor competition, joining Colin McKean’s 800-meter title in 2004.
Anderson is the first Green Knights male to win a national championship in a field event.
After Anderson cleared his winning height, he said he attempted 5.2 meters (slightly more than 17 feet) but didn’t clear that height.
“For the whole season, I've been running on a bad shin,” he said. “Once I had won the meet, the adrenaline started wearing off. By the time I was attempting 5.2 (meters), I knew I had won the meet. I attempted it one time, but then I started feeling that leg pain again and didn’t attempt another vault.”
Anderson said his next goal is the outdoor track and field season, where he hopes to compete for another national title.
He said vaulting inside compared to outside is “obviously much different.”
“When you’re inside, all the conditions are controlled – there’s no wind, and the temperature is consistent,” he said. “Outside, the temperature can fluctuate, it can be windy and you’re at the mercy of whatever Mother Nature throws your way. You can go into (outdoor) nationals really confident, and then at the meet, there might be a headwind, and you have to figure it out. I would say for the most part, a slightly higher height is reached outdoors, but on any given day, it might be the opposite due to the
weather.”
Anderson said he joined the Germantown High School track and field team during his freshman year to compete in a sport, but maybe not do all the running other athletes had to do.
“I heard pole vaulting was fun and you didn’t have to run all those laps,” he laughed.
“That’s kind of what I wanted to do. I think I started very well as a freshman, clearing 10-6. Once I found my passion for it and realized I had a chance to do something, I put in a lot of work – eating right, drinking more water and having better nutrition.”
From there, Anderson said he cleared 14-6 at the WIAA Division 1 state meet during his senior year.
“That was the Germantown school record, but it only got me fifth at state,” he said. “I had a passion for vaulting, but I never thought it was going to be something I’d be winning nationals for in college. I definitely put a lot of work in during college.”
Anderson said much of the work is done behind the scenes.
“The most important stuff is going back to my dorm room and doing push-ups and sit-ups and specific vault exercises that allow me to take other steps other people aren’t taking,” he said.
Anderson said he doesn’t think his vaulting career is finished once his days at SNC conclude.
“I’m not too far off from qualifying for the Olympic Trials,” he said. “A lot of work has to be done to make a career out of it, but I certainly don’t think I’m done vaulting. It would be really cool to qualify for the Olympics, but I'm going to take it one step at a time.”
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