ROBBINSVILLE: Ravens’ Hunter sets pole vault record

Junior breaks decades old mark

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   Craig Hunter tried a new pre-meet approach when he woke up on Saturday morning.
   It paid off for the Robbinsville High School junior, who went to bed Saturday night as the new Mercer County boys pole vault record holder.
   Hunter cleared 15-feet-1 to break by one inch the Lawrenceville School and Princeton University graduate Kevin McGuire’s 15-foot mark that had stood since 1989. Hunter eclipsed the record at a batch meet on McGuire’s old stomping grounds.
   ”It was exciting when I realized what I did,” Hunter said. “And I did it at Lawrenceville.”
   Hunter knew it almost immediately. As soon as his hands cleared the bar and he started to settle back toward the landing pit, he started to let a scream of joy. He jumped off the pit to receive congratulatory hugs from his pole vault coach Dan Bertolami of IPoleVault and Robbinsville head coach Jon Hutchinson. Then, he tried to bump it up to 15-6.
   ”My third attempt, I thought I had it,” Hunter said. “I had the height for it, but I didn’t have the energy for it and I was a little shallow. The height was there.”
   And a new record was already his after standing for 23 years.
   ”Honestly, I had the sense it was going to be today,” Hunter said. “I got up and warmed up with a couple laps around my neighborhood before I went to school.”
   Hunter doesn’t normally run on the mornings of meets.
   ”I had just woken up,” he said. “I was trying to get my body ready to compete. Sometimes you don’t feel that good when you have a meet later and you just sit around waiting for it.
   ”This was something new. And I jumped a foot-one inch PR.”
   Hunter expects that higher heights will come his way, but Saturday was a big step in his progression. He had opened the season in promising fashion with a 14-foot clearance at the Merli Invitational, which picked up where he left off last spring. But the Merli Invitational was one month ago on Dec. 28, and he was anxious to get back into competition.
   ”Form wise, I review all the videos of my jumps,” Hunter said. “At the Merli, I looked the same as Beach Vault (a meet last August). Now it’s a whole different me. I fixed so much in the month that I didn’t compete. It helped me get that huge 13-inch PR.”
   Without a partner, he hadn’t been able to enter the state group indoor relays, and the batch meet was as good a chance as any to check his new form. He felt good right from the outset of the meet.
   ”The high jump was first and I jumped 6-2,” Hunter said. “I almost got 6-4, which would have been a PR. I had a lot of energy. I was feeling good, feeling strong. I said, ‘let’s go kill it in the pole vault.’”
   Hunter reached his old PR of 14-feet without incident, and started to get excited about his potential when he cleared 14-6 for a PR that would not stand for long.
   ”I was ready to go,” Hunter said. “I just wanted to get it in and clear some big heights. I was a little nervous. I cleared 14-6 on my third attempt. The first two, I was over by a good eight inches, and I hit it on the way down. The third one, I got everything and got over it.”
   He immediately went after the county record. Instead of progressing six inches to an even 15-feet, he pushed the bar up to 15-1. That’s when he was happiest that Bertolami was there.
   ”He brought us a wider selection of poles,” Hunter said. “I had the confidence that if I was having an off day to go to a smaller pole, or if I was on to go to a bigger pole.”
   He needed a bigger pole for the new record.
   ”I was jumping on a pole 10 pounds heavier than what I did at Merli,” Hunter said. “A lot changed in the last month.”
   Hunter’s work over the last month and in the months leading into the track and field season paid off with the record leap. He’d seen steady progress in practice and it showed up in the batch meet.
   ”I work year-round at it,” Hunter said. “We never use a bar. We use bungees. In the offseason, which is from June to November or December, I really only have one or two meets. In that time, it’s more training and practicing. We started indoor early November, and I was going over bigger bungees.
   ”It was a matter of getting the meets to do it. At Merli, I was excited to get 14-feet, but I knew it was not the top of it. I knew it was going to get better. And it did.”
   It’s still early for Hunter, who has the county championship this Saturday and sectionals in just over one week, and then months of outdoor track and field. He’s thrilled with the record, but not satisfied with where it stands. He wants to ensure it goes higher.
   ”The next step is going to be pounding in form,” Hunter said. “Right now, I have the raw power and I’m starting to get the form. There’s still a lot I can fix. On my plant I could be a little taller, I could invert and hold the invert longer. I have a lot of video about it. I watch videos of myself.
   ”I watched the video of the 15-1. I’m pointing out things, I could that, I could do that. It’s great I could clear 15-1 and see all these things I could do better. I’m excited about it.”
   Hunter was scheduled to return to Lawrenceville for the Poreda Invitational on Wednesday, with the Ravens’ 4×800 relay going for Eastern qualification times. The meet was to be another chance to jump before the county meet, a sort of make-up for missing the New Balance Invitational in New York two weeks ago due to poor weather conditions.
   ”My goals are 6-inch things,” Hunter said. “If I fix parts of my jump, I figure my PRs will come with it. I don’t know how high (getting) fully inverted will get me, but I know it’ll get me a PR if I get fully inverted. I’ve got the bottom part. The top part is missing.”
   Hunter attacks his flaws one by one, working through each facet of the jump from the approach to the eventual landing.
   ”I tend to focus on one thing at a time,” he said. “When I analyze a video, I know that I fixed and what I didn’t fix. The first thing I focus on is the first thing that I chronologically focus on.
   ”A coach told me, vaulting is A, B, C and D. You have to do A right before you do B right, and B before C.”
   Hunter won’t have the luxury of another month off as he had leading into the batch meet, but the chance to compete more regularly should help as he tries to fix each aspect of his vaulting. He’s hoping that can translate into a higher jump, and also some hardware along the way.
   ”I’m thinking about going into counties finalizing what I need to work on going into the championship season with sectionals, groups and states.”
   With a new Mercer County record of 15-1, a mark that puts him among the top 20 in the country currently, Craig Hunter will be a clear favorite in the boys pole vault. He’s just trying to get better.
   ”I’m not ruling anyone out in the meet,” he said. “I’m not going in thinking I’ll be champion. I’m going in trying to improve what I need to for the rest of the season.”