TePaske looks to soar over competition this spring
Colonial is defending state pole vault champion
FARRAH MAFFAI Freehold Borough’s Jonas TePaske is hoping his revamped technique will help him maintain his status as the state’s top pole vaulter as the outdoor track and field season gets under way.
Jonas TePaske isn’t fretting about being a defending champion. The 2001 New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Meet of Champions pole vault winner is competing for more than titles this year (and he won a bunch of them last year including Freehold District, Central Jersey Group II and the MOC). He wants to vault very high.
"To me, this year is me against the height," said the Freehold Borough senior.
Last year, TePaske soared higher than any vaulter in District history, 14-6, and became the first to ever win an NJSIAA Meet of Champions state title.
TePaske has every reason to believe he will be flying higher this spring. He was more active than ever indoors, jumping in six meets. He twice cleared 14-0 and took the school record up to 14-3 at another meet. He finished 10th at the national championships.
TePaske also comes prepared for the 2002 season with a new technique that he hopes will get him to 15-0 and beyond.
After winning the state championship in June, TePaske hooked up with Lance Atkins, a former pole vaulter who runs camps and clinics and provides personal instruction in Reading, Pa. Atkins broke down TePaske’s technique. To the state champion’s surprise, he wasn’t doing a whole lot right technically. Like a winning golfer who knows that to get even better he has to rebuild his swing, Atkins and TePaske went back to square one.
"There were so many things to improve on, it was like starting over," said TePaske. "Everything is completely different. Lance showed me that I was getting my hips ahead of my shoulders. You need to be leaning forward to get more bend on the pole."
By leaning forward when he makes his plant with his pole, TePaske can also swing his legs with more authority. Combining the two gives him the best of both worlds — he gets more spring from the pole with the increased bend and has more swing in his legs as he inverts, giving him more speed going up. This combination should produce new heights for the Colonial.
Because he is breaking in a new approach, the senior knows it will take time for it to become second nature. He’s being patient, but not so patient that he isn’t ready today to start vaulting higher than ever.
One thing that has remained the same for TePaske is his run-up.
"I won last year because I was consistent with my plant," he said.
That consistency helped TePaske avoid misses at lower heights. At the state championships, TePaske was one of four vaulters to clear 14-0, but he won the state title on fewer misses.
Fitness is also a factor in vaulting, and TePaske leaves no stone unturned here. He does drills, works on the trampoline at Atkins’ camp, lifts and runs. In dual meets, he’ll sprint and hurdle for the Colonials and do the high jump as well. All these things help build stamina for a long competition that requires several jumps.
Having another top pole vaulter on the team has benefited TePaske as well.
Josh James and TePaske have been battling each other the last three years. "We push each other," said James. "He gives me something to aim for."
When they were sophomores, James was out-jumping TePaske. While he stayed at 12-6, a very respectable height, TePaske pushed it up to 14-6.
"It was frustrating," said James. "Every time I got close, he took the big jump."
TePaske, for one, is rooting for James.
"I want him to catch up," he said.
James is now using the 14-6 170-pound pole that TePaske used when he won the state championship last spring. James is hoping there is some magic left in it. He wants to get to 14-0 this year.
TePaske is using a 15-foot, 170-pound pole this year.
Together, TePaske and James give Freehold one of the state’s best pole vaulting tandems. They began their seasons on Saturday at the Greater Middlesex Conference Coaches Relays at Perth Amboy High School, and easily won the Division I pole vault at 26-0 with TePaske getting 14-0.
The pole vault has received attention nationally in the last couple of months because of the deaths of three vaulters. TePaske’s reply was that everyone takes chances in life and he doesn’t think pole vaulting is any more dangerous than the chance you take crossing the street. He did point to two things that could make the sport even safer. One was to increase the size of the landing mat so that it is more difficult for vaulters to fall off when they land. The mats should also be surrounded by grass and not concrete or asphalt, he said.
Second, he said, he would move the standard back from 12 inches to 18 inches, which would make jumpers land further into the mat. The standards are the distance that a vaulter moves the bar away from the plant area. They can move the standards anywhere from 12-36 inches, depending on the angle they take with their jumps.
In addition to state champion TePaske, the Freehold District is loaded this spring and that should produce some very exciting times.
The Colonials’ Debra Vento was the area’s best indoor track athlete, capturing the Meet of Champions crown with a school record 5-8. The Borough junior also won the Eastern States, NJSIAA Group I and Monmouth County championships during an extraordinary undercover season that saw her finish the year with an eighth place at the national scholastic championships. Vento will be looking to duplicate her indoor season outdoors. She will be pushed by Freehold Township sophomore Maura Burk, who jumped 5-6 as a freshman. Vento and Burk tied for fifth at the outdoor MOC last year and should help push each other to greater heights this year.
On the track, the District again has some of the state’s best distance runners led by Howell’s Matt Forys and a trio of Colts Neck runners.
Forys is a 1,600-3,200 threat. He prefers the 3,200, which he ran second in the county championships and eighth in the Group IV tournament. Coming off an all-state cross country season, the junior has been on a roll.
The Cougars’ Jorge Ventura and Israel Payan will be on a mission this spring. Injuries limited them to very sparse action indoors and they are hungry to chase after titles and fast times. Ventura was a Group I state champion at the 800 and 1,600 last year while Payan’s best event is the 3,200.
David Gaines had a breakout season for Colts Neck indoors, qualifying for the MOC in the 800 meters. He’ll look to carry that momentum over to the spring season.
Marlboro’s James Coomber and Howell’s Mike Cerchia and Chris Ehlers also bear watching.
On the girls’ side, Freehold Township’s Jen Gaffey and Manalapan’s Laura Saffer are the marquee distance runners. Others to watch are Manalapan’s Laura Little, Howell’s Heather Garleb and Leslie Holleran, Colts Neck’s Lianne Price and Ashley Liberatore, and Freehold Borough’s Kristie Buble.
In the sprints and hurdles, the area will be competitive as well.
Colts Neck’s Craig Stivala is one of the state’s best all-around track athletes. He’s fresh off an eighth place in the pentathlon at the indoor national scholastic championships in his first-ever multi-event try. He is a 400-meter and long jump threat.
Freehold Township’s Chris Reed and Rich Castaldi, and Freehold Borough’s Bret Jones and Tony Pena are the top sprinters.
Manalapan’s Tanisha Hamilton, Colts Neck’s Becky Mergenthaler, Freehold Township’s Katie Cherewich and Gerry Sultana, and Manalapan’s Melissa Isolda and Vento are the top sprinter/hurdlers among the girls.
In the field, Freehold Borough’s Diana Costanzo is coming off a strong indoor season where she reached 39-0 3/4 and won the Monmouth County title. The senior will be looking to get over 40 feet and get back to the MOC. Howell’s Sam Graffeo, Manalapan’s Andrea Vourtsis and Township’s Sarah Strickland are the other top throwers.
Freehold Borough’s Elton Cooke is the top male thrower in the area.
In the boy’s high jump, Marlboro’s Andrew Solomon and Howell’s Just Haug (indoor Group IV state champion) should battle for supremacy.
Manalapan’s Deanna Lyons will be looking to push Vento and Burk in the girls’ high jump.
Freehold Borough’s girls were undefeated in dual meets last spring and won the Class A Central Division championship. The graduation of sprinter Erin Turner-Byfield will be felt, but the Colonials have the quality and depth to repeat with Vento, Buble, Costanzo, Kathy Doran and Co.
The always highly anticipated Freehold Regional District Championships are set for May 2 at Howell High School. Marlboro’s boys and Freehold Township’s girls will be the defending champions.
The track calendar begins with the relay season. Saturday, Matawan hosts the Husky Relays followed on April 20 with the Holmdel Relays. The nation’s biggest meet, the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, are April 25-27.
The Lion Invitational at Middletown North High School begins the individual competition.
The Monmouth Invitational, hosted by Monmouth Regional, is May 4.
The first major championship of the season is the Monmouth County meet at Monmouth Regional, May 8-9. The Shore Conference Championships are May 18 at a site still to be determined. The NJSIAA State Sectionals are May 24-25 at Monmouth Regional (groups I and III)) and Holmdel (groups II and IV). The NJSIAA Group State Championships are May 31 and June 1 at Egg Harbor Township, and the NJSIAA Outdoor Meet of Champions is June 5 at South Brunswick High School.