By: Craig Morgan
TEMPE, Ariz. – Nathan Hiett hasn't enjoyed the best luck at NCAA regional meets.
"In the other three combined, I have made one bar," the Sun Devil senior said. "Freshman year, I was just a freshman and I wasn't very good so I wasn't too upset about that. Sophomore year, we had a whole bunch of lightning delays, one after the other, and I couldn't keep it together. Junior year, I had a fractured pelvis going into it so I hadn't trained for weeks and weeks and weeks. I made one bar and then I couldn't even get down the runway."
Hiett's luck may be changing, though.
At the Pac-12 Championships in Palo Alto, California, earlier this month, he felt awful again. He had tightness in his hamstrings, so he took a couple of weeks off before the meet; not the ideal way to prepare.
"Warm-ups were a little shorter than usual because we had to do introductions where they said our name and we waved at the crowd and I wasn't expecting that," Hiett, a transfer from the University of Albany, said. "I was not feeling too hot during warm-up laps and I spent a lot of time at short run until I ran out of time. When the bar went up to the first height, I was just like, 'OK, we're winging it. Let's do it.' I guess it worked out."
Hiett took second place at the conference meet with a vault of 5.24 meters (16 feet, 10.25 inches), while freshman teammate Cole Riddle placed fourth at 5.04 meters (16 feet, 6.5 inches), giving the Sun Devils two pole vaulters in the NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento, California, from May 24-26. Both are hoping to extend their season to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, from June 6-9.
"I think I am right on the edge of a breakthrough and I think I could PR (personal record) soon, so hopefully I will make it past regionals and PR at nationals and maybe end up placing," Riddle, who has dealt with a stress reaction in his knee this season, said. "I'll be healthy for the meet. The knee may bother me a little bit but with the adrenaline, I'll forget about it."
As Hiett's college career comes to close, Riddle's is just beginning.
The freshman from Surprise Valley Vista High School set the Arizona prep record in in 2017 with a vault of 5.36 meters (17 feet, 7 inches), but the college experience has been nothing like the Arizona prep landscape.
"I wish I had jumped a little bit higher by now and PR'ed but it doesn't always go as you want," Riddle said. "It has taken me a while to get used to college training because I had never really lifted weights or did all this hard conditioning. I kind of just went out and pole vaulted, but there is a lot more to it than that.
"Most of the [pole vaulters] here have been around a lot longer. Two of them have graduated and one is going to be a senior. They have seen a lot more situations than me. They are used to the college scene and know how your body acts in injury and other situations so they are able to give me a lot of advice and tips. I have learned a lot from the older guys."
Riddle also credits Sun Devil pole vault coach Ron Barela with keeping him focused on the moment while blocking out external noise, such as expectations or the injury.
"We've actually taken it really slow since he qualified for prelims at his first outdoor meet, trying to keep him as healthy as possible," Barela said. "We're just trying to build his speed because he's more of a speed jumper so when he's running really fast he jumps very high. If you have pain it's difficult but he's managed it very well."
Riddle trains in the offseason with former Sun Devil Nick Hysong, who won the Pac-10 and NCAA titles in 1994 and won gold at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. It was Hysong's 27-year-old prep record that Riddle broke and Hiett sees more of that in Riddle's future.
"I've got no doubt he's going to shatter the school record," Hiett said. "I think less than 10 kids have jumped 19 feet in college and I think he is going to be one of them. There is nothing more motivating than having a kid five years younger than you out-jump you at every meet. He has raised the level of intensity around here. He has made me better and I hope I have made him better."
While Riddle is the future of Sun Devil pole vaulting, Hiett hopes his last regional meet will produce the payoff he has been chasing. The top-12 finishers at the regional meet will advance to the national meet.
"This is definitely my only college athletic goal, to make it to the big show and do as well as I can," Hiett, who attended Chandler Basha High, said. "It's been rough the last three years so hopefully this years is the year. I don't feel a lot of pressure going in, but I've been chasing it for a really long time."
Barela has a simple message for Hiett and Riddle to relieve pressure and keep them focused on the bigger picture.
"One of the things I tell them is whether you have a good meet or you don't have a good meet you always can be there for your teammate," Barela said. "I try not to put a lot of pressure on them because I've been there before myself and I understand that high expectations make it difficult for people to sleep at night.
"The biggest thing is trust. They trust the process, they trust that I'll be there for them and they know I would never tell them to do something that would hinder them in any way."
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TEMPE, Ariz. – Nathan Hiett hasn't enjoyed the best luck at NCAA regional meets.
"In the other three combined, I have made one bar," the Sun Devil senior said. "Freshman year, I was just a freshman and I wasn't very good so I wasn't too upset about that. Sophomore year, we had a whole bunch of lightning delays, one after the other, and I couldn't keep it together. Junior year, I had a fractured pelvis going into it so I hadn't trained for weeks and weeks and weeks. I made one bar and then I couldn't even get down the runway."
Hiett's luck may be changing, though.
At the Pac-12 Championships in Palo Alto, California, earlier this month, he felt awful again. He had tightness in his hamstrings, so he took a couple of weeks off before the meet; not the ideal way to prepare.
"Warm-ups were a little shorter than usual because we had to do introductions where they said our name and we waved at the crowd and I wasn't expecting that," Hiett, a transfer from the University of Albany, said. "I was not feeling too hot during warm-up laps and I spent a lot of time at short run until I ran out of time. When the bar went up to the first height, I was just like, 'OK, we're winging it. Let's do it.' I guess it worked out."
Hiett took second place at the conference meet with a vault of 5.24 meters (16 feet, 10.25 inches), while freshman teammate Cole Riddle placed fourth at 5.04 meters (16 feet, 6.5 inches), giving the Sun Devils two pole vaulters in the NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento, California, from May 24-26. Both are hoping to extend their season to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, from June 6-9.
"I think I am right on the edge of a breakthrough and I think I could PR (personal record) soon, so hopefully I will make it past regionals and PR at nationals and maybe end up placing," Riddle, who has dealt with a stress reaction in his knee this season, said. "I'll be healthy for the meet. The knee may bother me a little bit but with the adrenaline, I'll forget about it."
As Hiett's college career comes to close, Riddle's is just beginning.
The freshman from Surprise Valley Vista High School set the Arizona prep record in in 2017 with a vault of 5.36 meters (17 feet, 7 inches), but the college experience has been nothing like the Arizona prep landscape.
"I wish I had jumped a little bit higher by now and PR'ed but it doesn't always go as you want," Riddle said. "It has taken me a while to get used to college training because I had never really lifted weights or did all this hard conditioning. I kind of just went out and pole vaulted, but there is a lot more to it than that.
"Most of the [pole vaulters] here have been around a lot longer. Two of them have graduated and one is going to be a senior. They have seen a lot more situations than me. They are used to the college scene and know how your body acts in injury and other situations so they are able to give me a lot of advice and tips. I have learned a lot from the older guys."
Riddle also credits Sun Devil pole vault coach Ron Barela with keeping him focused on the moment while blocking out external noise, such as expectations or the injury.
"We've actually taken it really slow since he qualified for prelims at his first outdoor meet, trying to keep him as healthy as possible," Barela said. "We're just trying to build his speed because he's more of a speed jumper so when he's running really fast he jumps very high. If you have pain it's difficult but he's managed it very well."
Riddle trains in the offseason with former Sun Devil Nick Hysong, who won the Pac-10 and NCAA titles in 1994 and won gold at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. It was Hysong's 27-year-old prep record that Riddle broke and Hiett sees more of that in Riddle's future.
"I've got no doubt he's going to shatter the school record," Hiett said. "I think less than 10 kids have jumped 19 feet in college and I think he is going to be one of them. There is nothing more motivating than having a kid five years younger than you out-jump you at every meet. He has raised the level of intensity around here. He has made me better and I hope I have made him better."
While Riddle is the future of Sun Devil pole vaulting, Hiett hopes his last regional meet will produce the payoff he has been chasing. The top-12 finishers at the regional meet will advance to the national meet.
"This is definitely my only college athletic goal, to make it to the big show and do as well as I can," Hiett, who attended Chandler Basha High, said. "It's been rough the last three years so hopefully this years is the year. I don't feel a lot of pressure going in, but I've been chasing it for a really long time."
Barela has a simple message for Hiett and Riddle to relieve pressure and keep them focused on the bigger picture.
"One of the things I tell them is whether you have a good meet or you don't have a good meet you always can be there for your teammate," Barela said. "I try not to put a lot of pressure on them because I've been there before myself and I understand that high expectations make it difficult for people to sleep at night.
"The biggest thing is trust. They trust the process, they trust that I'll be there for them and they know I would never tell them to do something that would hinder them in any way."
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter