Track

Erika Serame pole vault

Congratulations to Erika Serame and her comeback to competition. Erika had been suffering from an arch injury (caused by working out in new orthotics too soon and often) for most of the season and had her first vault last weekend at the Bob Warren Invitational. She won the event with a vault of 10’00. That’s just two inches off her personal best set last year. It also ties her for number 5 in the North Coast section. Erika did’nt just sit around for the last couple months. She got therapy (Dr. Thomas Lee) and regularly came into Gamespeed and continued to work on her upper-body strength and non weight bearing leg exercises and form. Great job kid, what a result!

Her Dad notified me by email of her performance:

 

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for whatever it is that you have been doing with Erika to build her upper body as she is exhibiting some amount of increased height in her pole vaulting.  She just started vaulting again last week and I’m seeing her do some things that she hasn’t done in the past to gain height.  She won the Bob Warren Invitational the week before with only a 10’ vault.  She kept hitting the bar on the way down at 10’6” so she is flirting toward 11’ with a longer pole.  I personally think that during her down time, she had to work on form rather than speed and doing this forced her to concentrate on each step which laid groundwork for a better / higher pole vault.