Burroughs’ Prystupa looks for one last big vault
It’s already been a wildly successful season and career for Burroughs High senior Sarah Prystupa.
The Indians pole vaulter has ripped up the school’s record book while winning a fourth straight Pacific League title and taking second at the CIF Southern Section Division I championships.
If that wasn’t enough, Prystupa has one last weekend to sky ever higher, as the senior is the city’s lone representative at the CIF State Track and Field Championship Meet at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Clovis’ Buchanan High.
“I’m really excited to go,” Prystupa said. “This is my first time ever qualifying to state and it’s something that I’ve been working on since my freshman year.”
The meet begins Friday, with athletes hoping to advance to Saturday’s final day of competition.
The pole vault preliminaries get underway at 6 p.m. and Prystupa will need to finish in the top 12 to qualify to Saturday’s championships.
“We’re not exactly sure what height she’ll have to get, but I’m certain it’s going to be over 11 [feet] 7 [seven inches],” Burroughs Coach John Peebles said. “The fact that’s she cleared 12-3 before should bode well for her, though.”
At last season’s state meet, the lowest mark to advance ended up being 11-9.
“I don’t know what I’ll have to hit, but I think if I get to 12 feet that will be good enough to advance,” Prystupa said. “I think that’s something that I can do and I really think I can make it to Saturday.”
Prystupa is one of 11 Southern Section vaulters to have qualified out of Friday’s CIF Masters Meet at Cerritos College.
Needing to either finish in the top six or hit a state at-large mark of 11-7, Prystupa tied for eighth with a mark of 11-7 at the Masters Meet to earn her spot in Clovis.
Prystupa’s best-ever effort came a week earlier at the Division I championships, also at Cerritos College.
Wanting to break her then personal-best mark of 12 feet, Prystupa did just that by hitting a mark of 12-3, which tied her for first in Division I with Peninsula’s Jacqueline Ahrens.
Though Prystupa ultimately lost the Division I title to Ahrens, who won a jump-off between the two, Prystupa was more than proud of her effort.
“I had wanted to get over 12 feet for a while, so when I did, I couldn’t be happier,” Prystupa said. “Now, the goal is go a little higher.”
Should Prystupa advance to Saturday, she would take part in the pole vault finals at 5:15 p.m.
Prystupa’s mark of 12-3 is the current school record and stands leaps and bounds ahead of the previous school record before Prystupa’s arrival on campus of 10-1.
“When Sarah came in as a freshman she took aim at that and got that at either the end of her sophomore year or the beginning of her junior year,” Peebles said of his four-time league champion. “I wouldn’t compare Sarah to past athletes because she’s looking to the future. She still has one meet left and we’ll see how she does.”
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Andrew J. Campa, andrew.campa@latimes.com
Twitter: @campadresports
