Sports360AZ
Nick Hysong was in the house, just to see if anyone could break his state pole vault record of 17-4 3/4 at the AIA State Track & Field Championships on Saturday.
The kids who participated sure gave the Tolleson grad a run for his money. There were no less than five vaulters who cleared 16′ on their way toward breaking his record, which has been standing since 1990.
It narrowed itself down to a final three – Horizon’s Grant Sisserson, Brophy’s Cole Walsh and Desert Vista’s Scott Marshall, and even then none of these young men were ready to concede to the other.
Someone had to come out on top in this battle, and it happened to be Sisserson. He cleared 17′, something Walsh or Marshall couldn’t accomplish.
Sisserson tried to overtake Hysong and claim the record for his own, but wasn’t able to clear 17-5, even with three attempts at it.
Catching up with him afterwards, you could tell Sisserson was disappointed that he didn’t get the record.
“Yea a little bit,” Sisserson said. “I wanted that state record, [and] that pole was kicking my butt, but I’ll take it any day.”
“I mean, 17′ is awesome,” Sisserson said.
Sisserson – who’s headed to Cornell University in the fall – couldn’t believe the level of competition he faced that night. They really pushed him to his limits.
“It’s unbelievable that I’m the best out of all of them at this time,” Sisserson said. “They’re gonna come back and get me I know that. They’re not going away, so it’s gonna be a fun summer,” Sisserson said.
Doing any type of pole vault at any kind of height is tough enough. When you’re talking about 16′ and higher, that’s rising to an entirely new level for these athletes.
“There’s so many minute changes that have to happen with your technique, that it’s so hard to keep track of all of them,” Sisserson said. “And another foot is probably the equivalent of going 10′ to 14′, it’s a lot of technique change.”
