It takes power, speed and a whole bunch of technique.
Yet, Willard’s Tassilyn Bolin makes it look easy.
“As a gymnast, it doesn’t really bother me to be upside down,” Tassi says. “It all happens so fast, you don’t realize it I guess.
Either way, the gymnast turned pole vaulter has proven to be the best the state can offer.
“In order to win the state [title] last year, she had to defeat the defending state champion,” said Willard Head Coach Mark Larson.
In doing so, the Willard senior became the defending Class 4 state champion with a vault of 11’9″.
The jump was just shy of her personal best and school record of 12′.
That broke the previous school record held by her sister, Brooklyn.
It’s fitting because Tassi says her sister is the reason she’s even vaulting in the first place.
“She started vaulting before I did,” Tassi said.
“Before that, we were gymnasts together, so we’ve always been on the same sports path,” she said. “I just kind of followed in her footsteps.”
Now Tassi will walk her own path as a college pole vaulter for Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.
“I’m very thankful because at the beginning of my senior year I was planning on not committing until after this senior year, because you just think that you’re going to have that season, you don’t think it’ll get taken away I guess,” she said.
With spring sports now lost, Tassi’s focus is on the future, and it’s a future where she won’t easily be replaced as a Tiger.
“State champion pole vaulters are not an every year reload kind of thing that we’ve had,” Larson said.
Especially when they make it look as easy as Tassi does.
