Mount Carmel Vaulters Are Fit to Be Tied : Johnston, Whitton and Bean Share San Diego County’s Top Mark

Six months ago, Mount Carmel High School’s Scott Johnston tossed one end of a rope over an overhead beam in the garage of his family’s home in Poway. He tied one end of the rope around his legs and pulled on the other.

The end result had Johnston hanging upside down. He explained that it helps him get acclimated to the position he endures as a pole vaulter.

Pole vaulters are a rare breed, indeed.

And Johnston is part of a trio of vaulters who are quite different than any San Diego County has ever experienced.

Johnston, Steve Whitton and Eric Bean are arguably the finest vaulting corps in San Diego to ever compete for one high school. Just three weeks into the season, the Mount Carmel vaulters have each cleared 14 feet 6 inches, the top mark in the county.

At the Canada Dry/Mustang Relays on Saturday at San Dieguito High, the three cleared a combined height of 42-0. The mark destroyed the old meet record by 4 1/2 feet. The three are usually their own competition at dual meets.

“It’s a great atmosphere for these guys to compete in,” Mount Carmel Coach Dennis McClanahan said. “You can go from the first to the third vaulter on our team in one or two days. Every dual meet is a CIF championship.”

Johnston, a senior, was the first to go 14-6. He cleared the height last season and duplicated the mark in the first dual meet this season.

Johnston began vaulting as a freshman. He used to play baseball in the spring until a friend convinced him to come out and see how much fun pole vaulting was.

“I was daring and crazy, so I tried it,” Johnston said. “When I started to like it, I quit baseball.”

Johnston vaulted 10-0 his freshman season, and trailed Whitton by six inches. But Johnston moved up to 13-0 as a sophomore.

“I read a lot of books after my freshman year and my father took me out to watch some meets,” Johnston said. “I was very daring and would try new things. I went to the hospital quite a bit that year, but I raised my height by three feet.”

Johnston continued to improve as he cleared 14-6 as a junior. He was alone at the top of the county’s vaulting list this season when he cleared 14-6 again. He now shares that mark with Whitton, who jumped 14-6 against Orange Glen High last Thursday, and Bean, who joined the group at the Mustang Relays.

“At first, I didn’t think I’d like it (being tied at the top with his teammates),” Johnston said. “But now, it wouldn’t be the same without them. I used to help them, but they really couldn’t help me because I didn’t see them jumping the heights. Now, they can tell me what I’m doing wrong and I can listen.

“Last year I went to all the big meets alone. I think having three guys is going to work out great.”

Whitton, a senior, was the second to join the 14-6 club. Whitton vaulted 10-6 and showed promise as a freshman, but did not progress as rapidly as Johnston. He was up to 13-0 as a junior.

“Steve had been taking off on the wrong foot,” McClanahan said. “It was my fault. I didn’t catch it for so long. It really hindered his progress. I was still learning how to coach the pole vault. The four of us were learning together.”

McClanahan credited Valhalla Coach Don Roberson for bringing him along in coaching the event. McClanahan said he also picked things up by attending clinics, various meets and in hosting his own pole vault clinic at Mount Carmel High.

But Roberson handed some of the credit for developing the Sundevil vaulting program back to McClanahan.

“The thing Dennis does that’s most important is he gets his guys the right poles,” Roberson said. “Pole vault is the most expensive sport in high school. The reason we’ve had such great vaulters is we got them the right poles, too.”

Roberson has coached his share of top vaulters. San Diego County has had three 15-foot prep vaulters and Roberson coached two at Valhalla. Prior to becoming a high school head coach, he was the pole vault coach at Grossmont Junior College for four seasons.

“Each pole costs about $200,” Roberson said. “Every time you want your kids to go higher, you have to get them a new pole. And Dennis will do that. There’s only three coaches in the county who will do that, and that’s me, Dennis and Jim Hunter of Ramona.”

The importance of the pole creates an interesting transition to Bean, who’s father, Ron Bean, cleared 13-8 as a high school senior in Ithaca, N.Y.

“He used a steel pole,” Eric said. “They don’t bend at all.”

Bean, who is very appreciative of his fiberglass pole, cleared 10-6 as a sophomore and 12-6 as a junior. Like the others, he seems to prefer sharing the top mark with his teammates.

“We’re not out to compete with each other,” he said. “I’d rather see them do better. They’re seniors. They’ve been working at this for a long time.”

Bean is enthusiastic that he still has a full season ahead of him.

“It’s great,” he said. “I have plenty of time to improve.”

The three have similar goals for the remainder of the season.

“First, we all want to clear 15-0,” Johnston said. “Than we want to all go after the county record (of 15-2 1/2 held by Jeff Mulligan, formerly of San Dieguito). From there on we’ll just see how far each of us can go.”