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He's rising above the rest (Tulsa World) 6-7-2007


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NCAA Championships: Men's and Women's Track and Field: He's rising above the rest

OU pole vaulter Scott Martin, a Jenks graduate, will compete in the NCAA Track and Field Championships. He credits his success to ORU track coach Joe Dial, who had a vault pit in his backyard.

by GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer

6/6/2007

OU's Martin to try for the NCAA pole vault title this week.

NORMAN -- Turns out football isn't everything to every Jenks Trojan.

Consider Scott Martin, the Oklahoma pole vaulter competing in the NCAA Championships this week.

"I was in football my freshman year at Jenks, but I only weighed 130 pounds," Martin said. "Plus it was more of a job. It wasn't as much fun as I'd had playing through middle school, so I decided I'd try something else.

"I had a buddy who was a pole vaulter, Blake Gudgel, and he knew I liked to do crazy stuff. So he took me over to the track on a whim, stuck a big bright orange pole in my hands and told me to run as hard as I could down the runway, plant (the pole) as hard as I can and try to get upside down.

"I planted, but I chunked backwards and landed right where I started. I landed flat on my back, lay there for 10 minutes and thought, 'What a rush.' "

Martin was hooked. It was simply a matter of mastering the art, which he did with the help of Joe Dial, the one-time pole vault world record-holder Line is overdrawn who is track and field coach at Oral Roberts.

"He had a pit in his backyard," Martin said. "I worked with him all summer."

Martin progressed enough to win a state championship his sophomore year at Jenks. He repeated as a junior and senior, when he jumped 16 feet, 9 inches.

Next came OU. Martin cleared 17-7 as a freshman, then 18 feet in a fourth-place finish at the NCAA meet as a sophomore. He returned to the national meet last year, and is back for one last go in Sacramento this week as the nation's sixth-ranked vaulter. His best vault this year was nearly 18 feet.

After that?

"It's hard to say," Martin said. "I've gone through a bunch of injuries. I've had a back problem since my sophomore year. I've had hamstring injuries. I might take a break for a little while."

Not that the thrill is completely gone. Hardly.

"There's something about carrying a big, long stick in your hands, sprinting down the runway as fast as you can, coming to a complete halt and hoping to have enough momentum to clear a bar about 20 feet off the ground," Martin said. "I'll always love pole vaulting."

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Guerin Emig 581-8355

guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com

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