Roberts Wesleyan's Brynn King Breaks All-Time NCAA Outdoor Record For Women's Pole Vault

Recap courtesy of Steve Bradley, Roberts Wesleyan University Sports Information AUSTIN, Texas – The saying "everything is bigger in Texas," certainly applies to Roberts Wesleyan University pole vault standout Brynn King. One year after setting the Division II women's outdoor pole vault record in her home state, King broke the all-time collegiate outdoor record in women's pole vault by soaring over the 4.75-meter bar (15-feet, 7-inches) in front of a large contingent of family and friends at the 97th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium on Saturday afternoon. "I always love to come back to Texas," King, a native of The Woodlands, said. "I probably had a cheering squad of 20 people here and my high school coach (Jacob Vasquez) drove over to watch. Coming back to Texas is part of it and then it's just a really exciting meet with a really good runway and good weather today, so I think it's a little bit of a combination of everything." Olivia Gruver of the University of Washington held the previous mark of (4.73m, 15-6¼), set at the Stanford Invitational on March 29, 2019. "Overall NCAA records do not come easily," said Roberts assistant coach Rick Suhr, who traveled to Texas with King. "I think it's one thing to jump a DII record, but coming into a DI meet from Roberts Wesleyan and breaking an overall NCAA record, that's just off the charts." King also established a personal record, eclipsing the mark of 4.73m she set while placing third at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. Competing in a field made up of 12 student-athletes from NCAA Division I institutions on Saturday, King surpassed her own Division II and meet record (4.68m, 15-4¼) set at the 2024 Texas Relays. The effort came 16 days after King set the Division II indoor mark of 4.66m in Indianapolis while repeating as DII indoor champion. King has captured three NCAA DII championships (two indoor, one outdoor) since transferring to Roberts from Duke University in June 2023, but the latest was the most challenging because she battled several illnesses throughout the season. "I've been improving technique, getting stronger, getting faster, but I couldn't really show it because I wasn't healthy," King said. "Now, being healthy, I feel like I'm showing all the work that I've put in in this past year and it's finally starting to come to fruition. I knew I was a better jumper, but it's really hard to show that when your body's shutting down from lack of oxygen when you're trying to compete, so this has been exciting." Suhr, who coached his wife and Roberts pole vault coordinator Jenn Suhr in three Olympics and traveled to Paris when King competed on Team USA last summer, said being healthy makes all of the difference for King. "We're at 100%, finally," said Suhr. "I think that's key today is she was on the biggest pole she's ever been on and broke the NCAA record. There's a lot of good athletes that have been trying to get that thing over a long period of time. For us, it's just nice to be able to come down the runway full speed again." King entered the meet at 4.37m (14-4), which she made on her first attempt, and passed up to 4.57m (15-0), which she cleared on her initial effort, to seize control of the event. After the field was trimmed to two, Olivia Lueking of the University of Oklahoma made her third attempt at 4.57m to extend the competition. King, a graduate student, was in control based on fewer misses and passed at the next height (4.67m, 15-3¾). King repeated as meet champion after Lueking missed three times at 4.67m and made history on her second attempt at 4.75m, on a pole that she had never used before. "I've jumped that bar in practice, so just to be able to finally go out and show it when it matters is nice," King said. "It also shows that I've got a lot more. I don't think that the jump that I made the record on was really that good of a jump for me. I was a little nervous planting a new pole, so you get a little tight, but I still ended up making that bar, so I think it just shows myself that I have a lot more in me, which is exciting." King tried to break Amanda Moll's indoor mark of 4.91m and set the all-time NCAA record but narrowly missed on her three attempts at 4.92m (16-1¾). "I've never attempted a 16-foot bar, so I was like, 'Let's just give it a good shot,'" King said. "I kind of surprised myself on the first one. I walked over to Rick and he's like, 'that was actually in the ballpark.' That was exciting to hear because that's kind of like a big number that all girls would love to jump. Just knowing that is definitely a possibility after seeing myself take three attempts at it, I think that was really exciting and motivating for me to keep putting the work in and hopefully get that bar not too far in the future."  
Read More...