This is going to be a busy spring for Linfield senior pole vaulter Catherine Street, the reigning NCAA Division III indoor pole vault champ.
Street is juggling 12 1/2-hour shifts at Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel as part of her nursing practicum, completion of her degree requirements, and her training schedule.
A complicating factor is that Street’s personal record of 13 feet 9 1/4 is a mere four inches from the B qualifying standard for the U.S. Olympic Trials. “It’s very doable, especially with the way I’ve been practicing,” Street said. Meeting the B standard won’t necessarily get Street into the trials.
But, if Street can clear, say, 14-4, that probably would be good enough. “That would be awesome,” she said. Street was a competitive swimmer at Wilsonville High School who didn’t break out as a pole vaulter until near the end of her senior season. By then, she said, the Division I scholarships “were basically gone.”
But Street liked Linfield’s nursing program and went the Division III route. She admits to wondering what it would have been like had she vaulted for a Division I school, but isn’t sorry she landed at Linfield.
“I like the Division III aspect of it,” Street said. “I like being able to excel at track and academics. There is more of a one-on-one feel at a small school. And I wouldn’t have changed the Linfield nursing program for anything. It’s been great.”
No matter what happens or doesn’t happen at the trials, Street plans to continue competing post-collegiately with her club program, the Willamette Striders. “I’m not done,” she said. “Pole vaulters don’t peak until their late 20s or early 30s.”
Notes: The Oregon women’s team, which has been ranked No. 1 on the Division I level since before the start of the indoor season, held onto the top spot in this week’s USTFCCCA rankings.
The UO men moved up from No. 16 to No. 13. … The Ducks announced they have signed four recruits — transfers Chris Stubbs, a sprinter from Lane Community College and steepler Katie Conlon of Jamestown College, and high school seniors Annie Leblanc, a mid-distance runner from Repentigny, Quebec, and sprinter-jumper Ashante Horsley of McMinnville. The transfers are eligible immediately.
By Ken Goe, The Oregonian
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