Feb. 8, 2001
Feature courtesy of the Columbia Tribune
By DAVID CHOU of the Tribune's staff
This is what Lyndsey Tait does as she clutches a fiberglass pole and runs down the pole vault runway: Count the number of steps.
Tait remembers her days as a youngster in Colorado Springs, Colo. With her two best friends, she would clutch lengthy tree branches and jam them into the ground, flinging herself over puddles. She'd jokingly tell her friends she looked just like those pole vaulters on television.
The once fearless puddle jumper is now a Missouri freshman who holds a school indoor record in the women's pole vault, clearing 11-feet, 5.75 inches. She toppled her previous mark by nearly three feet and currently has the fifth-best vault in the Big 12.
With just three meets under her belt, the focus will be on whether she can continue her sky-rocketing success. Even if people still don't believe she's a pole vaulter.
"Nobody can really see me out there pole vaulting," said Tait, of Jefferson City. "A lot of high schools didn't have it or they didn't have girls doing it. People think that it's big joke or that I'm just pretending.
"It's something that really sticks out in people's minds like, `I can't believe she just did that.' I think it impresses people."
The sight of Tait bounding down the runway with her pigtails following close behind has caught the attention of onlookers. The ritual began when Tait and fellow freshmen pole vaulters Jennifer Bennett and Lindsey Vleisides, decided to tie their hair back to keep it out of their faces.
"I feel like I'm flying," Tait said. "It's feels like a rush every time you vault."
Women's pole vaulting has been a competitive sport for only three or four years. This summer's Sydney Olympics elevated the event to national prominence when the United States' Stacy Dragila, the world record-holder in the event, won the gold medal.
"When I was watching, it felt like I was right there with her," Tait said. "You never see girls pole vaulting on television and it was neat to see her get the recognition."
Dragila has helped put the sport on center stage.
"The vault is exciting, it's something most people can't do," Missouri coach Rick McGuire said. "It looks fun and is fun, and it looks sort of daring."
Risk taking is one of Tait's vices. When asked to give the event a trial run in high school, Tait jumped at the chance without hesitation.
"I guess the coach needed to find some girls that were dumb enough to try it," Tait said.
There has been nothing ignorant about Tait's learning curve. Her high school coaches didn't have much time to spend coaching Tait, so she relied on her teammates to learn her craft.
In the summer, she would go to track camps in Lawrence, Kan., to learn from coaches there.
When the decision to attend college came, it was difficult because Tait had such close ties with the vaulting coaches at Kansas. But with just 30 miles separating Columbia and home - and with the coach at Kansas leaving for Nebraska - the choice was easy.
"I think a part of my parents thinks that I'm really crazy," Tait said. "But they're really proud and supportive of me.
"But I think my mom still gets a little scared, especially when she sees other people fall."
Steve and Cea Tait have always had a strong presence in their daughter's life. Tait is currently studying marketing because Steve is the vice president of operations for Scholastic Books, and she'd often go to his office for lunch. Tait took a liking to the business atmosphere and now uses that mindset in the classroom and on the track.
Now she's learning from a new set of coaches, Missouri assistants Eric Boxley and Gene Bard. They have helped her with her form and execution.
"I really like it because both of our coaches are volunteers," Tait said. "They bring two different aspects." Boxley "is just out of college and he's an 18-foot vaulter."
Bard "is an older, more mature vaulter that has been around long enough to have seen a lot of things that gives two different aspects."
Tait's light-hearted attitude and daredevil mentality made it easy for McGuire to recruit the Jeff City native.
"She was a perfect fit," he said. "We needed some women's pole vaulters and we got three. But she's doing very well, she has the record, and I would hope she'll raise it a little bit more."