ABOVE: Creighton Kubly of Dearborn, Missouri gets fully into his vault as he practices for the boys competition at Vault the Plaza Saturday. He finished second in his competition with a 12-foot vault, behind Torin Price who placed first with a 13-foot vault.

FAIRMONT – Local pole vaulters, and additional athletes from around the country, made Fairmont their proving ground on Saturday as they worked to improve themselves at Vault the Plaza, which took place on downtown Fairmont.

Event Coordinator Crystal Hanson said for multiple years, they have been trying to find ways to raise funds for the pole vault program at Fairmont High School.

“We’ve actually added about 70 poles into our program, and what that’s done for our kids has really just been incredible,” she said. “Giving them access to opportunities they don’t have otherwise.”

Even so, there is more they still want to do. Hanson said they are still short of what they want to do for the upcoming season, which led her to the Schmeeckle Foundation.

“We took them up on their challenge of trying to come up with a new idea,” she said. “They’re all about coming up with something that would impact the community and get multiple people working together in organizations. That’s where the whole street vault idea came from.”

The idea for this was first put into motion last summer, and it was overall a huge undertaking, according to Hanson.

“I’ve heard about street vaults,” she said. “They run one in Roseville, so I was able to talk to the gentleman that runs that up there and get some insight of what works, even the little details of how you build a runway to be able to do that. Working with the city, they were great to work with, getting the event permit done and trying to lay out the event footprints. We had Boekett Building Supply that donated a large portion of the lumber we needed to construct the raised runway.”

As for getting the word out that this was happening, Hanson said pole vaulting is a pretty tight-knit community. There were also athletes in the area for Team Hoot, a pole vaulting camp put on by Shawn Francis and hosted at Bob Bonk Track at Fairmont High School that took place earlier in the week. The two events were purposefully scheduled for the same timeframe.

Speaking of Vault the Plaza, Hanson said, “We ended up with 46 entries, which I was very happy with, and that’s a nice size, especially for our first year.”

One of those entries, in the men’s division, was Carson Ricard. A record-setter during his time at Fairmont High School, Ricard now lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and prior to this event hadn’t pole-vaulted in 13 years.

ABOVE: Fairmont native, Carson Ricard, clears the pole during Vault the Plaza’s mixed men’s and women’s competition, which opened the day on Saturday. Ricard, who now lives out of the area and hadn’t pole vaulted since his days at Fairmont High School, won his competition with a 12-foot, 6 inch vault.

“Me and my family traveled here,” he said. “We’re excited to see the community show up for all the athletes. [Hanson] told me her plans for this for a while. I did everything I could to help support her in it, and volunteer when I could, and told her after a while I’d love to try and compete and see what my body could do.”

Back in the area where he grew up, Ricard said he and his family love coming back to support the community.

“We’re excited for what the community’s doing for the track team and pole vault in general, coming out here to support the kids,” he said.

Ricard’s goal in his first time vaulting in over a decade was to get to at least 13 feet, but he would be satisfied with 12 feet. Ricard made it near the middle of those two, winning the men’s event with a vault of 12 feet and 6 inches, followed by Tim Johnson with a 12 foot vault and Jonathan Hammerschmidt with a 11 foot, 6 inch vault.

ABOVE: The morning crowd looks on as Jim Moeller from Eagan gives it his all on the pole vault stage. He finished fourth in the mixed men’s and women’s competition at Vault the Plaza with a 10 foot vault.

There were two competitions for the boys, split up by previous personal bests being either over or under 12 feet. There was one competition for the girls, and all three were made up of high school and collegiate athletes.

In the first boys’ competition, Torin Price finished first with a 13 foot, 3 inch vault. Creighton Kubly was second with a 12-foot vault, followed by Christopher Anderson with an 11 foot, 6 inch vault.

Kubly has family in the area, but traveled from Dearborn, Missouri to work on his pole vault skills at this event. He had never done a street event prior to this, and after a few practice runs, Kubly said it feels different.

“I love the music, I love the vibe,” he said. “It’s chill. I’m ready for everybody to vault and see what it feels like.”

Going into the competition, Kubly said he was hoping to set a new personal record in the 12-foot to 12-foot, 6 inch mark. He would make it on the lower end of that goal, which secured him second place.

In the second boys’ competition, six athletes tied for the top two spots. Julius Schneider and William Mansfield finished first with 14-foot vaults, while Jase Meade, Benjamin Anfinson, Colton Davis and Willem Evenson had 13-foot vaults.

Tiebreakers were given based on the number of attempts needed, so Schneider was awarded the victory due to only needing one attempt, while Mansfield needed two attempts, placing him in second. Meade was the only one who cleared 13 feet in one try, so he was given third place.

ABOVE: Simon Holland from Blue Earth, right, heads back to make another attempt after receiving some advice from Team Hoot Coach Shawn Francis, left. Francis, who had led a pole vault camp through Team Hoot in Fairmont the days before, stayed in town to provide advice to athletes who had come as individuals.

In the girls’ competition, Ellie Perkins of Fairmont and Baya Carlson both vaulted 11 feet and 6 inches, tying for first as they both needed two attempts. Annika Magelee finished third with a 10 foot, 6 inch vault.

From both competitors and spectators, Hanson said they have heard a lot of positive feedback so far. With that in mind, Hanson said they would make some changes if this event is done again.

“Everything went really smoothly,” she said. “The things I’m going to do differently are ways we can enhance it more. I now know the actual event footprint we need. I know how I would structure the timing a little bit differently; we were running about an hour behind.”

It is not yet set in stone whether this event will return next year, but after initial discussions, Hanson said the chances are fairly good for pole vaulters to return to the streets.

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