As MSU pole vault coach Tom Eitel watched each of his competitors
during the women's pole vault competition at the MSU Open Indoor
Track and Field Meet, he knew he had something cooking.
"Every time one of the girls cleared the bar, I could see the
determination in the other two," MSU's seventh-year assistant
said of his three top women pole vaulters.
Shannon Agee, Cortney Ellis and Michelle Tronstad comprise one of
the top women's vault crews in the nation this year. "When
Cortney cleared 12' 7 1/2", I could see Shannon decide right then
she was going to clear it, too." The results of their
season-opening indoor effort was startling. Agee posted the
sixth-best mark in the nation this year at 12' 10 1/4", while
Ellis' jump of 12' 7 1/2" was eighth-best. Tronstad's mark of 12'
3 1/2" was not far off the chart.
Those three marks are now the top three in Big Sky Conference
history. "That's amazing, to have the three best marks in one
event in the history of the conference," Eitel said. "And in one
meet. But it really shows the talent of those three."
As similar as those three are in terms of results, they have
taken widely divergent paths to the Worthington Arena pole vault
pit.
Agee took perhaps the most conventional approach, "Just learning
as I go and plugging along," she laughs. She set the national
high school record at 13' 2" while starring at Helena High, and
the next year found herself at the University of Kansas. Life in
the midwest was not for her, however, and she transferred to MSU
last January. Eitel describes his most experienced competitor as
"steady, smooth."
Ellis has a strong background in vaulting, but not pole vaulting.
"I had a strong gymnastics background," the soph. from Sisters,
Ore., says. "I was kind of surprised (about being recruited by
MSU) because I'd only gone 9' 6" in high school. I said, You want
me to pole vault?'"
Tronstad comes to MSU from Flathead High, and has made quite an
impact as a true freshman. "Michelle is the most aggressive of
the three," according to Eitel.
Since preseason practice began last fall, the three have taken
the success of each of the others and co-opted it. "I'm a major
competitor," Ellis said, "and I think having the three of us
together has really pushed us. If somebody clears a height first
we're not going to be beat. It's pushed us. If Shannon wasn't
here or Michelle wasn't here I don't think I'd be vaulting as
well. And I think they'd say the same."
Tronstad said the motivation is constant. "The tougher
competition you have, for me, the more you want to push yourself.
You want to reach them and try to beat them, because as an
athlete you want to win. It's great having teammates that are
really good. Even when we're just having a fall meet, we're still
going to have good competition between the three of us."
Agee is impressed with Tronstad's potential. "Michelle has this
wild heart thing about her," she says. "If she can harness that
and put it in the right places, she can go so high. She goes 12
feet backwards. No one does that. Cortney is so athletic. As a
gymnast, it transfers over to the vault so well."
Ellis was an outstanding youth gymnast, reaching level 10, which
is a step below national-team competition. "I loved
(gymnastics)," she says. "I went in at age four and didn't really
know any better. It was my life. I went to school and then went
to the gym for four or five hours and then came home, day after
day. It's a great sport. It teaches you so much responsibility,
and it gives you that athletic base."
And, according to Eitel, it gave Ellis exactly the components
necessary to succeed in the pole vault. "If I could take anyone
and make them a pole vaulter, I'd give them exactly Cortney's
background," said Eitel, who has coached MSU athletes to eight
Big Sky titles. "She is a long jumper so that has really given
her a good base on her approach, and she has the gymnastics
background that really helps her up top. She has very good speed
because of her long jumping and sprinting. She is probably the
most natural vaulter of the three" despite having the least
experience.
That fact is not lost on Ellis. "I'm still a novice at pole
vaulting, I haven't been doing it that long. I've really only
been vaulting for two years, and if I have the ability that coach
thinks I do it's scary to think what I could potentially do."
Eitel says Agee is unflappable. "She's very consistent," said
Eitel. "She just doesn't make mistakes. She's a very steady
person, and a very steady vaulter."
Tronstad has found the technique work intensive. "My run has
changed a little bit," she said. "Right at the beginning I go out
real fast and at the end it turns out that I have a good takeoff.
That's how it's always naturally been, but I think it's getting
more aggressive with the change in my run. I need to keep working
on the top part of my vault, which I've always had trouble with."
Each of the three laud the work Eitel has done, individually and
with the group. "My relationship with Tom is stronger," Agee
says. "I don't know if I could ever have a word for him. I think
he's a big reason I decided to stick with pole vault and
definietly have a stronger passion for it right now."
Ellis has worked the most intensively on technique. "I think
because I haven't been vaulting very long I have some quirks in
my vault, some things that need to be fixed," she said. "Now that
we're in competition season it's more repetition. When we first
started in the fall it was a lot of technique work."
For Agee, the combination of being comfortable again in her
native Montana, the technical instruction provided by Eitel, and
the atmosphere of cooperation and competition fostered by her
coach and teammates has resulted in a surge in performance.
"There's been something come together recently that's going to
get me to a new spot," she says with calm confidence. "It's a
never-ending process, the eternal challenge. I have a new desire
to surround myself with track. It hasn't been like that for a
long time, or ever, maybe."
Each of the three unfailingly says they've forged a friendship
through the competition and hours of shared experience. "We're
all very different people," Ellis says, "really different
personalities." Tronstad adds, "All of us get along really well.
It's great to have good friends as your teammates. You're always
wanting to reach as high as they vaulted."
And the net effect has been a record-setting start to Montana
State's season.
