By Steve Brandon, Portland Tribune, Thursday, April 11,
2019
Everything came together in
Boston for pole vaulter Olivia McDaniel.
And she's not done yet.
McDaniel, a Scappoose High
graduate, captured a national title for Linfield College, winning the NCAA
Division III indoor championship on March 8.
A senior for the Wildcats —
who lives in Portland and works full-time as a labor and delivery nurse at Legacy
Emanuel's Randall Children's Hospital in North Portland — McDaniel cleared a
personal-best 12 feet, 11 1/2 inches.
She beat the runner-up,
Heidi Nassos of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, on fewer misses.
It was McDaniel's third trip
to nationals — and a very different experience from her previous two
competitions.
"The other two times, I
had a little bit of impostor syndrome," she says. "I didn't quite
feel like I belonged there. I was just so excited to make it to the meet. I
never had a goal of winning."
A year ago at the outdoor
nationals, she was seeded eighth and tied for 14th in gusting winds. In 2017,
she was the No. 21 seed and placed 10th
This time, she was seeded
third, "but I knew I had good chance of winning, so I came into the meet
with a totally different mind-set," she says. "I walked in with the
expectation of jumping the best I could. I knew I was well-trained. I was
prepared."
Her strategy of passing on
some early heights paid off, too, and technically she was in a groove.
"I felt like I was
polished and jumped the way I should have, and the results followed," she
says. "It was awesome."
The pole vault competition
came one day after her 22nd birthday.
"I postponed my
birthday celebration," she says.
The icing on the cake was
having her parents and boyfriend in Boston for the victory.
"We all went out and
celebrated," she says.
Linfield track and field
coach Travis Olson says he and Wildcats pole vault coach Dayson Tiogangco
weren't surprised to see McDaniel break through in Boston.
"The previous day, in
warmups, she was jumping higher than (12-11). So we knew if she did what she
thought she could do, she'd have a great shot to win," Olson says.
It was the highlight of an
athletic career that, on paper, seemed unlikely when McDaniel was vaulting not
nearly as high off the ground at Scappoose.
"I never saw myself as
being a collegiate pole vaulter, much less a national champion," she says.
With the Indians, she
cleared only 9-6 in her one year of vaulting, as a senior.
"I really wasn't very
good," she says.
But Linfield, and Tiogangco
in particular, saw something in the former youth gymnast.
"He was at my state
meet and recruited me," McDaniel recalls. "I was interested right
away, but I was going to Linfield just for the nursing program, and I didn't
decide to go out for track till I got there."
Olson says McDaniel now is
"the example I give to all my recruits," showing what is possible.
"She's the perfect
example of how to develop as an athlete and how we want to develop our
athletes," he says. "She's done an outstanding job committing not
only to the academic side but also to improve in the pole vault.
"She was blessed with
some speed and has that gymnastics background, and those two things fit very
well to the vault, and she was very new to the event coming out of high school,
so we felt she had a huge upside.
"Once she started
figuring things out technically, she really started to improve. She's very
aware of what her body is doing once she takes off from the ground.
"And she's a coach's
dream. She really buys into what we're doing, is really committed, is a good
teammate.
"It's just easy working
with her. She is able to fix stuff if we give her feedback with technical
things.
"It's been pretty fun
to watch her."
Linfield fans will get to
see more of her, too. She plans to vault in a handful of meets this spring,
with an eye on winning a third Northwest Conference outdoor title and going to
the NCAA D-III outdoor championships.
"I have three goals for
this outdoor season: Be conference champion, be national champion and break the
school record," she says.
The latter goal might be the
biggest ask. The school record is 13-11 1/4, set in 2012 by Catherine Street,
the national indoor and outdoor champion that year. Street, from Wilsonville,
also studied in Linfield's nursing program.
"In practice indoors, I
was jumping 13 feet, 13-6. I know I have a bigger jump in me for outdoor,"
McDaniel says. "I'm working a lot right now on just getting faster and
getting on bigger poles and fine-tuning my technique. I think I have everything
it takes and with my coaches."
Last weekend, she cleared
12-6 in less-than-idea conditions for the annual Jenn Boyman Memorial
Invitational at Linfield. It's the No. 2 mark nationally for D-III.
The Northwest Conference
championships are April 26-27 at Tacoma, Washington.
The national meet is May
23-25 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
McDaniel trains in Oregon
City with the Willamette Striders and under the direction of renowned pole
vault coach Rick Baggett.
That's partly, at least,
because she graduated early from Linfield, in December, and has to transition
from workouts to her long day and night shifts, typically 13 hours, at the
children's hospital.
"My schedule is pretty
crazy," says McDaniel, whose grade-point average at Linfield was close to
4.0. "I squeeze in my workouts when I can."
At best, she is able to
drive to McMinnville and train at Linfield and with her fellow Wildcats once or
twice a week.
As crazy as things get,
McDaniel is thinking of continuing to vault after this spring.
"That is a big
question, but I've definitely been thinking about that idea," she says.
"A lot of it will depend on how well I jump, and if I think I should be
able to make a little career out of it.
"With a track career,
there is a more of a short timeline, and I want to make the most of it."
..............
Note:
Print
edition of this story has two photos. The online edition has two photos, one of
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