Erik Dodge vaults into the Aragon record book

Because the Scots did not have a pole vaulting team, the event was held at Aragon separate from the rest of the meet happening at Carlmont. What only the Aragon pole vault team got to witness was school history, as Dons’ junior vaulter Erik Dodge cleared a height of 14 feet, 2 1/2 inches to set a new Aragon record.

The previous record was set 60 years ago, in 1963 by Jack McClusky. It was the oldest record in the Aragon track and field record book.

“I screamed in excitement,” Dodge said. “I brushed [the bar]. It was wiggling a little bit. I didn’t realize [the school record] was attainable until about three weeks ago.”

The 60-year gap shows just how rare it is to find an athlete to excel in one of the most demanding sports in track and field. Not only do pole vaulters have to be exemplary athletes, there is a mental side to the sport that not all athletes can master. A combination of math and technique, those vaulters who can put all the pieces together are the one who can go far.

“He’s very focused,” said Norm Bennett, Aragon pole vaulting coach. “Just an incredible talent.”

Like most pole vaulters, Dodge, who also runs the hurdles for the Dons, didn’t take up the sport until he got to Aragon for his freshman year of high school. His very first competition, Dodge cleared 9 feet at the first event of the season, finishing third at the Willow Glen Invitational.

A week later, everything shut down because of COVID.

But Dodge stuck with the sport. Like everyone else, he scrambled to get a vaulting season in as a track and field season came together almost at the last minute as the COVID restrictions loosened. With his hard work and dedication to the sport, Dodge increased his height from 9 feet his sophomore year to 12-6 at the Central Coast Section championship last season, which was good for fourth place.

This season, he started the season at 12-6, eclipsed 13-6 March 23 in a dual meet against Sequoia before the record setter this week.

That’s 5-foot, 2 1/2-inch increase in just over two years.

“The sport made sense to me,” Dodge said. “They say the more you vault, the better you get.”

It’s that attitude that Bennett believes is Dodge’s greatest attribute: he’s willing to put in the work.

“He did a lot of work in offseason conditioning, that included Saturday practices,” Bennett said. “(The key to success is) putting in the work and understanding the physics of the vault itself. You got to have the right combo of putting in the work and studying what he did.”

In addition to setting a new school record, Dodge’s vault was the second highest in the Central Coast Section this season. St. Ignatius’ Logan Lehnert has the season’s best mark at 14-6. But neither Bennett nor Dodge believe that his record-setting mark is a one-off. They both believe this is simply Dodge’s progression.

“I knew I could clear that,” Dodge said. “Before, I saw 13-6 was my end target. Now, I’m working my way up from there.”

Said Bennett: “When he first cleared 13 (feet) and 13-6, it was a stretch. But he kept improving his technique.

“Once he dials this in, I don’t want to call it routine, but it should be something he could duplicate.”

There is one problem, however. Bennett is going to have to find some different equipment.

“I’m running out of poles,” Bennett said. “He’s on a 14-foot pole (now). We may need to shop around … to find a longer one.

“He’s only a junior. He could go higher. Fifteen feet would be a goal.”