Parker Grounded in Pole Vault : Track: Former Notre Dame High star fails to clear a height in Fresno Relays competition.

It is one of the strangest, yet most frequently occurring, phenomena in track and field.

Pole vaulters who, in training, regularly clear heights superior to their personal bests struggle to scale lower heights during competition.

Tom Parker of the Advantage Athletics track club is experiencing that frustration this season.

Parker, who cleared 17 feet as a senior at Notre Dame High in 1988, reportedly screamed over the bar--with several inches to spare--at 17 feet in a recent workout, but he failed to clear any height in the open-development pole vault on the first day of the Fresno Relays at Fresno City College on Friday.

Parker, who is taking classes at--but not competing for--Valley College after transferring from Tennessee, missed all three of his tries at 16-6, a height he achieved last week to finish second in the Northridge Invitational at Cal State Northridge.

“He’s getting way over the bar at 16 feet in practice,” Cal State Northridge assistant coach Tim Werner said. “But he’s still not in shape. It’s early in the season and he doesn’t have that many good jumps in him right now.”

He didn’t have any Friday, stalling out on the top of his first two jumps at 16-6, and knocking the bar off with his knees on the way up on his third attempt.

Teammate Jeff La Monica fared better, tying his week-old personal record by clearing 16-0 to finish fourth. Todd Arnett of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo cleared 16-6 to win.

After clearing 15-6 on his second attempt, La Monica made 16-0 on his third trial--brushing the bar, though not enough to knock it off the standards. He then failed in three tries at 16-6.

La Monica finished third (Parker was second) in the pole vault at the 1987 California state high school championships as a Poly High senior, then concentrated on the decathlon for the first two years of college. But he is focusing on the pole vault this season, partly because he needs a change of pace and partly because his injured body needs time to heal from the rigors of the decathlon.

“I felt good at 16-6,” La Monica said. “But I’m just not there yet.”

In junior college events Friday, Tonia King of Antelope Valley won the small schools division of the women’s high jump at 5-2.

Several Cal State Northridge athletes will compete today, including middle-distance runner Sasha Vujic and sprinters Kevin Hendrix and Chris Pippins.

On the women’s side, hurdler Kim Young and sprinters Laural Isles and Charlotte Vines will run.