VERMILLION, S.D. (AP) - In just a few short years, University of South Dakota freshman Chris Nilsen went from a first-time pole vaulter to NCAA champion by jumping 18 feet 8.25 inches at the indoor championship in College Station, Texas on March 5.
“Everyone was just really supportive of me being there,” Nilsen said. “I was the youngest one there and the fact that they knew I could hold my own was probably the best part of it.”
Nilsen did more than hold his own. During the competition he said he was focusing only on his own goal, which was to jump 18 feet 4.5 inches, and once he reached that height he looked to see what the other jumpers had reached.
“My coach Derek Miles and I like to look at it as keeping your head down throughout the whole competition and once we’ve jumped what we want to jump we will put our heads up and see who is still in the competition,” he said. “Once I’ve done that I looked up and realized I was the only one left, so we just kind of started going from there.”
The Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan (https://bit.ly/2ovzFup ) reports that the winning mark was 18 feet 4.5 inches that he cleared on the second attempt, but Nilsen wasn’t finished there. He continued to clear the bar without competition until the final 18 feet 8.25 inches, which tied his personal best height.
He entered the NCAA championships with the top mark, but knew that didn’t mean an automatic win.
“Coming in with the top mark I definitely knew that I had a good chance to win, but the pole vault, the sport itself, is ridiculously inconsistent with how things go,” he said. “The person can come in with the number one mark and still not make a bar and get last place, so I wasn’t expecting to win, but I knew I had a decent chance of doing so.”
It may have been Nilsen’s first college championship, but he is not new to winning, in fact he has won every meet he’s competed in as a Coyote and has picked up six Summit League Athlete of the Week honors and two Athlete of the Month awards during the indoor season.
“My favorite win would probably be the USD alumni meet because after I jumped a personal record of 18 (feet) five (inches) and my whole team rushed me on the pit and tackled me and that was probably the happiest I’ve been in my track career, so we’ll call it that,” he said.
Later in the season, Nilsen cleared 18 feet 8.5 inches at the Tyson Invitational on February 11 to break the American under-20 indoor record.
Nilsen’s pole vaulting career started as a freshman at Park Hill High School when he joined the track team as a means to stay in shape for soccer. Originally, his plan was to play soccer in college, but that took a turn when he showed a natural talent in pole vaulting.
At the beginning of the track season, he saw the pole vaulting coach was a familiar face in a former teacher, so he approached her and asked if he could give it a try.
“My first few times I pole vaulted in high school my coach put a pole in my hand and said to take this many steps forward while running and put your arms up and hope for the best,” Nilsen said. “Not exactly those words, but somewhere along those lines.”
The first few attempts he said he ended up falling back on the runway. He kept getting back up with some encouragement from his coach and ended up jumping 12 feet three inches during his sophomore year.
“I used to have a form called dead beetle where I would just hunch up against the pole in a little ball and go over the bar,” he said.
The final two years of high school, Nilsen starting training with a personal coach and a few months later was jumping over 15 feet, and continued to improve. By his senior year he set the national high school record at 18 feet 4.5 inches.
USD head track and field coach Lucky Huber and jumping coach Derek Miles recruited Nilsen during his junior year.
“They were really dedicated to their athletes and they take care of us really well and speaking of dedication, the team is just really dedicated. They are always here to get better,” Nilsen said. “They all want to be here to get better, win championships, win medals and be the best athlete they can be. And that’s what Derek and Lucky want us to be. They want us to be great people and great athletes.”
Standing six-foot-five also gives Nilsen and advantage when it comes to the pole vault.
“I’m able to get on longer poles from a shorter run because I have a higher take off angle. My hand is somewhere like eight feet in the air that makes it a steeper takeoff angle which makes it easier for me to roll poles or make them go forward easier,” he said.
Nilsen uses a pole that is 16 feet nine inches long.
The outdoor track and field season began last Friday at the Baldy Castillo Invitational in Tempe, Arizona and Nilsen picked up right where he left off.
Nilsen broke an 11-year-old USD outdoor pole vault record by 11 inches with a jump of 18 feet 6.25 inches as he blew the field away by a foot and half. The previous USD record was 17 feet 8.5 inches, which Nilsen cleared on his first jump of the day and the season is just getting started.
“A lot of people tend to vault higher outdoors just because they have been vaulting for a longer period of time,” he said.
Nilsen picked up the Summit League athlete of the week and has been on the Bowerman watch list since the beginning of March. The Bowerman is presented by the US Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association and is the highest honor in collegiate track and field presented annually to the most outstanding male and female athlete in the nation. He ranks No. 2 in the world for under-20 pole vaulters, according to the Summit League.
As long as he can stay healthy, Nilsen is looking to continue improving his heights and maybe make another appearance at the outdoor championships in June in Eugene, Oregon.
“Stay healthy and jump some high bars and hopefully win another national championship and just keep doing what I’m doing and stay consistent in my heights,” Nilsen said.
Nilsen and the Coyotes will be in Vermillion for a dual meet with South Dakota State on April 8.
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Information from: Yankton Press and Dakotan, https://www.yankton.net/
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