For the brief moment he is vaulting, the only thing between junior Jake Stevens’ head and the solid ground is a bendable wooden pole. While this may seem like a terrifying situation, Stevens’ only focus when suspended in midair is to push himself to new heights. Literally.

“During indoor season, I broke the school record by an inch vaulting thirteen feet and four inches. I was the last one vaulting in the meet and I thought, ‘Well, why not move it up to thirteen four?’ so that I could have the record to myself because I shared it last year with Colton Gray who graduated in 2011,” Stevens said. “I ended up making it over thirteen four, and I missed when the bar moved up to thirteen seven.”

After celebrating his new school and personal record, Stevens quickly began working toward his new goal height, which he was able to make last weekend.

“When I cleared fourteen seven at sectionals, I didn’t even think I was going to clear fourteen feet. I cleared thirteen seven and I went nuts. My nerves were super high because it was a State height, but after that I felt so much more relaxed and I was able to relieve the stress,” Stevens said. “The thing about pole vault is you can’t think about it in the moment or else you mess up, and you don’t want to mess up fifteen feet in the air.”

While beating his own record by over a foot was a huge accomplishment, Stevens had to overcome unexpected obstacles throughout the beginning of the outdoor season in order to make it over the ever taller bar.

“It was kind of frustrating because our school didn’t have the poles for me because my plant is really good. So poles that might be super stiff to someone who doesn’t have as much experience are way too soft for me, and we didn’t have stiffer poles that I could use,” Stevens said. “At county the pole was too soft. I was about fourteen feet up in the air, came down, and got a concussion because I missed the mat. I ended up being okay and vaulted the next week, but it hurt and I was pretty messed up.”

Stevens bounced back quickly, which allowed him to spend the past few weeks preparing for the State competition.

“This week I learned some other things I’ve been doing wrong since I started vaulting, and I was able to fix it, so now I’m really excited and will hopefully be able to vault fifteen feet or fifteen one this weekend,” Stevens said. “There are a lot of fourteen seven vaulters, there’s a handful of fifteen one vaulters and fifteen seven. If I can clear fifteen one, I can probably place within the top seven.”

Though Stevens is excited for his opportunity to stand on the podium at State, his favorite part of vaulting is far more personal than just clearing the bar.

“I love the environment it’s in. Pole is such a unique sport where everyone roots for each other. Rather than in a sport like football where you’re cursing at the other team and you’re never trying to pat each other on the back or tell them, ‘Let’s go, you can do it,’ pole vault is completely different,” Stevens said. “Everyone is cheering each other on. It’s an individual sport, and you want to place well, but you want everyone else to do well, too.”