Stuart Kantor
Special to Rivals High

Over the past four years, Shade Weygandt (Mansfield, Texas) has dominated her sport as few other track and field athletes ever have.

She's literally vaulted to unparalleled heights, claiming the national freshman (12 feet, 9 inches), sophomore (13-02.50) and junior (13-10) records as well as every significant Texas state high school record in existence. Only one record escapes her: Tori Anthony's outdoor national mark of 14-01.25.

Ellie McCardwell, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer to the pole vault limelight to which Weygandt has grown accustomed. The rising senior at Pendleton (Ind.) Heights High School has skyrocketed to a state meet record (13-06.25) in such a relatively short window that her reputation has just begun to garner national attention.

At the Nike Outdoor Nationals on June 19 in Greensboro, N.C., Weygandt and McCardwell, the country's top two female vaulters, finally met.

"She's a really nice person," Weygandt said. "We cheered for each other."

And although no official torch was passed, the crowd understood the significance of the evening's competition; Weygandt (13-03) and McCardwell (12-11) showcased the immediate present and future of American female pole vaulting.

SHADE WEYGANDT

Weygandt's greatest strength is also her greatest weakness: the expectation of success. Her coach, Paul Richards, son of two-time Olympian pole vaulter Bob Richards, said she fears mediocrity.

"[She] doesn't want to look bad in the results page," Paul Richards said.

This psychological burden yielded a substandard start to the 2009 season, a season in which she competed unattached after graduating in December.

"I jumped 12-3 my first indoor meet of the season. At Nike Indoors, I jumped 13-2. I defended indoor titles, but I didn't jump the heights I wanted," Weygandt said. "There was a focus issue. I wasn't part of a team. I wasn't in shape; as unattached, I didn't get the running workouts. It took me halfway through the outdoor season before I finally got in a groove."

Enter New Mexico and the Great Southwest Track and Field Classic, a meet Weygandt won in 2007 at 13-05.25.

"I cleared 13-07 for the meet record, and then I cleared 14-0 on my first attempt," she said. "I cried. It was pretty insane. I don't believe I'd ever jump that high. It's the cherry on top to my high school career."

A career built upon a martial arts foundation. Skilled in tae kwon do, Weygandt credits the discipline instilled within this rapid-paced Korean art form with the body awareness necessary to maneuver the body from the plant through the swing through the shoot and finally over the bar. Of course, the wings that propel her flight may also be credited to her energy drink of choice.

"I always drink a Red Bull the day of the meet," Weygandt said. She laughed and added: "My ultimate goal is a Red Bull sponsorship."

A flashback to seventh grade and a sponsorship is the furthest thing from anyone's mind.

"The PE coach said, 'You look athletic; why don't you try cross country?' I hated it. I tried to run long distance, but I stopped after one lap," Weygandt said.

In eighth grade, Weygandt "cleared 9 or 9-6. I also landed on the concrete and got a concussion. In ninth grade, the Wednesday before the state meet, I got tangled up in the bungee. I cut the skin off the top of my ear where the ear connects to the head. It was repaired with surgical Super Glue."

Weygandt then jumped 12-09 to claim the first of her three state 5A titles.

"She has the drive and intelligence," Richards said. "If she's not sidetracked, she'll be a 15-footer within three years and hopefully ready for the 2012 Olympics."

Although Weygandt concurs, she envisions the 2016 Olympics as more realistic. Until then, the girl voted Most Likely to be a Pro Athlete at Prom will compete at Texas Tech under the skillful tutelage of coach Wes Kittley.

"We are very fortunate to get Shade," Kittley said. "She will provide so much immediate impact nationally as a freshman for us."

At 5 feet 7, Weygandt is blessed with great speed, superior agility and incomparable drive. Yet the frustration of the event never ceases to confound.

"There are times where you want to say, 'I'm done. I wanna quit,' Weygandt said. "But if you have strength and determination, good things will come. Pole vaulting ? it's what you put into it."

For Weygandt, the "incomplete book" (the national record) neither diminishes the impressive body of work constructed in just four years nor the expected greatness to come.

ELLIE MCCARDWELL

For McCardwell, the rapid success has been mind-boggling.

"I haven't processed it all yet," she said of her 13-06.25 vault at the Indiana state meet.

Yet thoughts of Anthony's all-time mark have already registered.

"I looked it up. It's a goal for next year, definitely in my sights," McCardwell said.

A former level 10 gymnast and self-professed daredevil who includes sky diving on her "to do" list, McCardwell credits her innate body awareness in the vault to her gymnastic background.

"I know where I am in the air," she said. "Gymnastics has helped my swing and reduced injury. Performing on the balance beam and the bars has helped me deal with nerves."

If nerves ever made her reticent, moxie pushed the envelope.

"I wanted to go out for the football team in seventh grade, but my parents wouldn't let me," McCardwell said. So she ran the 100 and high jumped "on a whim. It was something to do other than gym."

McCardwell opened the outdoor season on April 13 with a personal-best 12-07. Four days later, she increased an inch and held the No. 1 position in the nation. She hit the magical 13-foot mark on April 28, and three weeks later entered the nation's consciousness when she cleared 13-05 at the Indiana Pendleton Heights Girls Sectional.

Suddenly, the avid Colts fan was thrown into the national spotlight in an event that had become more than a whim. Unbending to pressure and expectation, McCardwell tightened her grip on the nation's No. 1 spot when she cleared 13-06.25 to surpass Katie Veith's 2006 mark of 13-06.

"It was on my first attempt on a pole I used for the first time in a meet ? a 14-foot, 135 pole. I got my plant up, ran hard and had a good vault," McCardwell said.

Three subsequent attempts at 13-09 failed, yet the progress in only three seasons is nothing short of supernatural.

As a freshman, McCardwell soared over 9 feet ? and she was hooked. "I now considered this the sport to pursue," she said.

Coach Paul Babits ? who himself soared 18-05 in May 1996 to qualify for the Olympic trials ? mentored McCardwell and 11-6 zoomed to reality. Now coach Bob Potter has taken over, and the national record is within reach.

Partial credit for her success goes to Youth Pastor Joe Webb, who McCardwell says "taught me to believe in myself; how to live."

One thing you can believe: McCardwell possesses the skill to regain the No. 1 position in 2010 and perhaps graduate high school raising the bar above 14-02.

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