Rowan County’s best pole vaulter in history is moving up in the world.
Gold Hill’s Matt Price, who just completed his
sophomore track and field season at UNC Wilmington, vaulted a school-record 17
feet.
Price ranks tied for 88th in Vault World’s outdoor
world rankings for professional and amateur vaulters.He was 69th immediately
after the meet.
“If I never jumped any higher, that was just great
to see it on there,” Price said of the world ranking.
He’s also tied for 64th among American vaulters,
pro and amateur, and tied for 37th among NCAA Division I vaulters. Brent
Callaway of UNC-Chapel Hill (17-9) is the only vaulter from a North Carolina
college who is ranked higher than Price. He beat Price at Chapel Hill.
Price actually re-injured an ankle after clearing 17
feet at Chapel Hill.
“I didn’t have my ankle taped. I went to get up
in the pit and turned my ankle. I didn’t get to jump any more,” he said. “I
was upset, because I was jumping really, really well and thought I was going to
keep going. All I needed was five more inches this year to go to NCAA
(Championships), and I was pretty sure I would have got it that day.”
Price also won the pole vault, clearing 15-9 in bad
weather, in the Colonial Athletic Association’s conference meet at Richmond,
Va., in April. He helped the Seahawks win their fifth straight conference
championship.
The 5-foot-8, 150-pound Price also made a strong
showing in the prestigious IC4A meet at Princeton in May, clearing 16-834 and
finishing second. He earned All-East honors for that performance.
“I’d like to see the video of the meet at
Princeton. My last jump at 17 feet was about a foot over. But I had the
standards slid too far away from me and I came down on it,” he said.
Price had an amazing four-year career at East Rowan
High School, where he was a five-time state 3A champion — three times outdoors
and twice indoors. He set the county record of 15-6 — four inches better than
any other competitor — in 1999.
Price, the son of Jerry and Teresa Price, received a
track scholarship to UNCW and has improved gradually in his two years at the
college level.
He improved to 16 feet during his freshman year,
then 16-3 during the past indoor season. A big breakthrough came early in the
outdoor season after he had sprained an ankle in a season-opening home meet. He
cleared 16-9 at the University of South Carolina, where he took first place.
“I had been working on my top a lot during the
indoor season and couldn’t get my timing exactly right. I put it together that
meet,” he said, explaining that the “top” is “where you come up off the
pole.”
Price then had the opportunity to spend some time in
Arkansas with Earl Bell, the world record-holder in 1976, a three-time Olympian
and the bronze medalist in 1984.
“He coaches a bunch of professionals — men and
women — and holds camps. I went during the weekend and jumped with him
one-on-one. We worked on the bottom half of the vault, the takeoff,” said
Price.
“Things that my grandpa (Jerry Miles of China
Grove) had been telling me for years just clicked when I was there. I fixed a
couple of things up there that my grandpa had been trying to get me to fix. The
next weekend I went to Chapel Hill and jumped 17 feet,” he said.
Jerry Miles was a pole vaulter in high school at
Kannapolis when they still used sawdust pits. His son, Jimmy, was a star athlete
at South Rowan High School and ranks fifth on the all-time county list at 14-3.
Jimmy Miles worked a lot with Price when he was a
middle school vaulter and a freshman at East. Jerry Miles has coached him most
of the time since his sophomore year in high school. He has a pole vault pit at
his home.
“We’ll work out two or three times a week during
the summer,” said Price. “I’ve also got a brick mason’s job this summer.
It will definitely get me stronger. I’ll also work some in the weight room at
East with coach (Ed) Bowles.”
Price has lofty goals.
“I would really like to go over 18 feet in
college. If it continues to go well and I stay healthy, I really want to go to
the Olympics,” he said.
Price, who will be 20 on June 30, doesn’t care how
long it takes to make it to the Olympics, since some top vaulters often don’t
peak until their late 20s or early 30s.
“As long as it takes and as long as the body can
stay healthy ... Jeff Hartwig is 31 now. He was the best jumper in the country
last year,” said Price. Hartwig has cleared 19-414 this year and ranks second
in the world behind Russia’s Pavel Burlachenko (19-612).
“Hopefully, the next two years will be good years.
They say right at 18 feet goes to the Olympic Trials. Whoever’s day it is that
day gets to go to the Olympics,” Price exclaimed.
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