OGDEN, UT – Griz fifth-year senior Keith Webber, who now holds both the Montana indoor and outdoor pole vault records, was named the Big Sky Conference co-Field Athlete of the Week Tuesday by the league office.Webber was recognized after going 17-2.75 Saturday to win the pole vault at the Griz-Cat Dual in Bozeman. His jump broke the UM outdoor record of 16-10.75 from 2002, held by Griz assistant coach Adam Bork, and the dual record of 17-1.25 from 1998, held by MSU’s John Wurtz.Webber, of Spokane, Wash., has the best mark in the Big Sky Conference this season by six inches, and he ranks 27th in the NCAA West Region, a position that should send him to NCAA regionals for the first time in his career. This year’s regional meet will be held May 29-31 at Fayetteville, Ark.Webber went 17-1.5 in January, also at Bozeman, to break Bork’s indoor school record. He went on to win his first Big Sky Conference championship when he won the indoor pole vault title at Pocatello, Idaho, in February at a height of 17-0.75.The pole vault is the patient athlete’s event, and Webber long ago embraced the commitment required to become a Big Sky champion and record-holder.He went 15-0.25 in his very first collegiate meet during the 2010 indoor season, but it wouldn’t be until the 2012 indoor season, two years later, that he first broke 16 feet. And it wasn’t until January of this year that he first broke 17 feet.
“There are a couple of reasons it takes so much time to improve in the pole vault,” said Bork. “The first thing that gets you height is speed on the runway, and that takes time to develop. Then you need to get confident on bigger poles, because a bigger pole is what you need to throw you higher.
“There is always that point when most pole vaulters kind of plateau. To overcome that, they have to get comfortable and confident with a bigger pole, and that can take longer than making improvements in other track and field events because so much of it is mental and getting past the fear factor.”
Webber and the Grizzlies will host the Montana Open this week, with the women’s heptathlon being contested Thursday and Friday and the women’s and men’s hammer throw Friday afternoon. The rest of the meet is Saturday at Dornblaser Field.
The Big Sky Conference championships will be held May 16-17 at Flagstaff, Ariz. Webber’s best performance at his first three outdoor championships was a fourth-place finish last spring at Forest Grove, Ore.
