Vaulting To Victory — Cait Schmitz

Pole vaulting is a sport that athletes train for their entire lives to become the best they can possibly be. However, for pole vaulter Katherine Pitman, this is not the case.

Graduate student Katherine Pitman began her career as a pole-vaulter during sophomore year of college and has now begun training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Pitman set the school record with a mark of 3.72 meters in her first season with the team.

The following season she broke her own record twice with a mark of 4.21 meters. In her third season she broke the entire Division III record with a mark of 4.22 meters and a week after, beat it again with a mark of 4.25 meters.

To put her in perspective --- the pole vault record for Division I athletes is 4.71 meters. Pitman is still relatively new to pole vaulting, but is on a quick upward trajectory.

The trials are a little over a year and a half away and will be held in Eugene, Oregon. With eight days of competition over a 10 day span, Kat hopes to qualify for the 2020 Olympics Games. Pitman’s current personal record is 4.31 meters -- the Olympic qualifying height for women is 4.50 meters.

Katherine Pitman’s gymnastics career at Ithaca was cut short when she was cut from the team going into her sophomore year.

“I was so devastated about gymnastics.” Pitman explained, “I had worked really hard because I was injured freshman year that’s why I trained so hard over the summer to get back that I was in great shape and super motivated and super pumped so to be like.... well what do I do now?”

Pitman now trains with Matt Scheffler, the pole vault coach at Ithaca College. Scheffler has been coaching at Ithaca for 12 years. Kat says she attributes everything to him.

“I’ve only had one coach.” Pitman stated, “I think that all of my success is roughly his success.” Pitman explained, “He’s not only one of the most knowledgable individuals about pole vault — it’s his life passion.

“This semester was really hard because I was taking 18 grad credits, but this fall has really been building a base for the year and for the season.”

Kat’s goal for the upcoming season is to hit 4.40 and dip her toe in the competition waters at indoor USA’s in Staten Island this upcoming spring.

The trials are a little over a year and a half away and will be held in Eugene Oregon. With eight days of competition over a 10 day span, Kat hopes to qualify for the 2020 Olympics Games. Pitman’s current personal record is 4.31 meters -- the Olympic qualifying height for women is 4.50 meters.

Pitman trains six days a week, with very little off time. Vaulting Tuesday/Thursday, lifting twice a week and doing two sprint workouts. Each workout is also paired with rings, bars, high bar, cart drills, core, push ups, pull ups, and lots of upper body weight excersizes.

“I think I have a good chance of qualifying, but it’s up in the air because I’ve only been doing this for 4 years. The potential for growth is there. I opened my season in December, 20 meters higher than last year, same with the year before and the year before that. In terms of facilities, coaching, equipment and my current fitness status I definitely see that in the future, but I also have a year and a half -- a lot can happen in that time. My coach and I are on the same page. We’re going to train through 2020 and see what happens. Until then I’m just going to stay optimistic.”