The Blue Eagle junior settled for 13-9 and a 3A gold medal.
Ryan Fox felt cheated.
The Nazareth junior felt he’d done what he needed to do to clear 14 feet at the District 11 3A pole vault championship Tuesday afternoon at Blue Mountain.
“14 feet is what I came here to do and I thought I had it,” Fox said. “I just couldn’t get on up at the top. I had my hips over the bar and that’s usually supposed to be the measure of whether you clear. But my arm knocked the bar over.”
So Fox had to settle for a best vault of 13 feet, 9 inches, the No. 2 vault in the lehighvalleylive region this spring, and a D-11 championship.
Fox credited the competition, led by Whitehall’s Gavin Wood (second at 13-3 and the other state qualifier), with his personal-best effort, behind only his friend Cooper Bertoldo of Phillipsburg’s 14 feet in the region this spring.
“I need competition right on my rear end to help push me,” Fox said. “Today I was shaking, in a good way, on my runup with adrenalin. The competition really, really makes me better.”
Fox said that he needed some technical fixes to get better, too.
“I got away from the pole a little bit and I need to stay closer to the pole on the way up,” he said. “I need to come through the vault better in the air and work on getting up better.”
If he does all that, next week at Shippenburg could be just what Fox wants.
“I really want to go to states and have fun,” he said. “There will be a whole bunch of guys I know there and Gavin is a friend of mine. I want to go out and get some good jumps out there.”
And maybe that elusive 14-footer at last.
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
