FAYETTEVILLE -- Good thing for Sandi Morris that pole vaulting is performance based on clearing heights and not on form.
"If it was based on style points like diving or gymnastics, we never would have made the Olympic team," Arkansas Razorbacks women's vault coach Bryan Compton said.
Compton still coaches Morris, the 2015 UA grad vaulting since last summer for Nike and vaulting next month for the U.S. Women's Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
With just two practices between breaking her wrist May 20 in Slovakia and clearing 15-7 July 10 to nab the second of three spots on the U.S. Olympic team, any form was acceptable if she cleared the bar she "gutted it out," Compton and Morris both said.
"My technique at the Trials was not on," Morris said. "If you haven't vaulted in a long time, sometimes it can be hard to get it back. So I just focused on bringing it down the runway."
Now Morris brings it with the form of the American outdoor record-holder. Morris' 16-2 clearance at last Saturday's American Track League meet hosted by Rice University in Houston surpassed any American woman's outdoor vault at a U.S. venue.
"We were jumping that before we got hurt," Compton said of Morris, the 2016 World Indoor silver medalist sporting a personal best 16-23/4 winning the USA Indoor championship last March in Portland, Ore.
After her injury, Morris did as much cardiovascular training and virtual vaulting as she could before the Trials. But there's just so much she could do until her mending wrist could grip the pole.
"Her technique in Houston was tons better than at the Trials," Compton said.
Originally set to regain her edge after the Trials vaulting in a couple of Diamond League meets in Europe, Morris and Compton kept her at home practicing in Fayetteville. Between Eugene and Rio de Janeiro, Morris will have competed only in last week's Houston meet and this weekend's '"street vault" in Charlotte, N.C. allowing her time to revisit her family home in relatively nearby Greenville, S.C.
"Instead of going to Europe we came back and worked on some things and it looks like it is paying off and she is starting to get back to herself," Compton said. "We'll keep working and hopefully keep cleaning it up."
Morris concurs.
"It was a really good call," Morris said before practicing Monday with Lexi Weeks, the UA freshman from Cabot and U.S. Olympic teammate, at the Randal Tyson Indoor Track as rain fell outdoors. "Obviously it paid off getting back to the basics instead of going overseas. I felt like myself again. My technique was definitely better. I was jumping into the takeoff with my hands nice and high. I went into that Houston meet just to get my feet under me an ended up with an American record."
Sports on 07/27/2016