Greencastle, Indiana –Former Big Ten champion Chet Clodfelter won his second-straight USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championship in the pole vault recently. Clodfelter, owner of Greencastle Physical Therapy, won the 45-49 age group at the Olathe, Kan. event, vaulting 14-5 1/4. His vault matched last year’s winning height and tied for the highest at the event, regardless of age. “It’s a lot of fun to meet some of the past athletes,” Clodfelter said. Clodfelter was a star prep athlete at North Putnam, then continued his career at Purdue where he won the 1985 Big Ten championship. He continued his career sporadically after college then hung up his pole in 1991. Five years ago, Clodfelter’s college coach called him and encouraged him to get back into competition. “My track coach from Purdue, Noel Ruebel, was emailing me and enticed me to get back into doing some decathlons,” Clodfelter said. “That was a lot of fun. I didn’t train to really do good, but I went out on a whim and did that with him and started competing again.” Clodfelter began competing again in decathlons and performed well with virtually no training. When he started focusing on that, he started getting wins. more
