By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — On this rare occasion, procrastination was a good thing. Pushed back by the SEC meetings and Razorback baseball, a column on a pole vaulter from rural Arkansas is more timely than it was a few days after he set a state record.
Last month, Andrew Irwin of Mt. Ida did 17-1 and his coach, Morry Sanders, went on and on about Irwin’s splendid attitude. That was going to be the centerpiece of the column until Sanders responded to an e-mail request for any new developments.
Last weekend, Irwin jumped 17-7 and Sanders received confirmation that the mark had been certified as a national indoor record, a half-inch higher than a high school vaulter from Colorado did 25 years ago.
The absolute of track and field is appealing. Seventeen feet, seven inches is 211 inches in Arkansas, Texas or any place else. There is no quality of competition in play as there is when the quest is to identify the best high school football player or basketball player. After a year of college, Auburn and South Carolina fans are still arguing about Michael Dyer vs. Marcus Lattimore.
“He is absolutely the best high school vaulter in the country …,” Arkansas track coach Chris Bucknam said when Irwin signed with the Razorbacks earlier this year.
A college football coach isn’t about to make such a declaration about an incoming quarterback.
The first practice after Irwin set a state record in the Meet of Champs, he listened as Sanders nitpicked a video of the jump. Bothered by conscience, Sanders suggested to his star pupil that a critique of a record jump sort of stinks.
“Yeah. but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Irwin told his coach. That’s how the best get better.
Irwin’s resume includes clearing 17-6 1-2 in his first outdoor meet of 2011 — at the time, the best in the country by a high school student. He has the right genes — dad Steve helps Sanders at the Arkansas Vault Club training facility and sister Stephanie was a three-time winner of the Meet of Champs who held the state record when she graduated in 2004.
Irwin cleared 11 feet in the seventh grade and made steady progress during the next few years. His technique was superb, but technique only takes a vaulter so high. Strength and speed are also needed for record jumps.
“In our minds, we were not sure he was physically mature enough to jump high,” Sanders said. “Watching him train, watching him jump, it was pretty good, but it took him forever to get to the box.”
That was prior to an indoor meet at the University of Arkansas last year. Literally overnight, Sanders said, Irwin added an extra gear.
“We’re freaking out,” he said. “Every trip down the runway, he was on a bigger pole. Before the day was over, our jaws were dropped. What do we do now?”
They regrouped before the next meet.
Built on land donated by the grandparents of some vaulters, the AVC facility about 40 miles west of Hot Springs is home to Irwin. Under an arched roof, there are two pits and runways long enough for speed work. Vaulters come out of the woodwork to practice there during the season and more than two dozen are year-round regulars.
Sometimes, high school phenoms level off. Not Irwin, Sanders said, because he embraces challenges, has impeccable technique and is unflappable.
——-
Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
