Before she had even tried the sport, Jaclyn Masters wanted to be a pole vaulter.
As a budding athlete in her early teens, Masters was active in the Auburn Track Club. She eyed the pole vault and begged her coaches and parents to let her try it. When she was finally of the proper age, she got the go-ahead.
She’s been excelling — and breaking records — in the event ever since.
“Pole vault is definitely a unique event,” Masters said. “It’s challenging. I think it just clicked with me, and I’ve been able to be successful with it.”
Masters is winding down her career at the University of Maine, but doing so in the finest of fashions. She’s been setting records on a weekly basis, finishing her indoor track career with an exclamation point.
“I think this is a great way to end it,” Masters said, who likely will compete in her last indoor meet this weekend at Boston University in the ECAC/IC4A Championships. “This is it for me. This way, it’s cool for it to come together my senior year. I was meant to do it in four years.”
Last month at the America East Championships at Staten Island, N.Y., Masters went in hoping to win the event. She wasn’t thinking about setting any kind of record.
“I really just wanted to win the conference,” Masters said. “It’s my senior year, and I won my freshman year. I haven’t had the chance to win the conference ever since.”
She not only won the event with a height of 12 feet-9.5 inches (3.90 meters), but also set a new conference record. After winning the event, it still hadn’t occurred to her that she had set a new mark. The previous record was 3.80 meters, set in 2009.
“I figured that out after I had won,” Masters said. “That was a bonus. That was an unreal day.”
The win in Staten Island also came on a dubious anniversary — five years to the day after she broke her femur during a pole vault drill during her junior year at Edward Little
That accident happened just two days before the indoor state meet and derailed her season. But it didn’t stop her. She was back competing for EL on the soccer field and in track her senior year.
She’s improved annually at UMaine, extending her personal best in the event a full two feet.
“I’ve been trying to get back to where I was,” Masters said. “So I really wanted to win. That was one of my priorities. Getting the record was really a big bonus.”
Her coaches had told her what the conference record was and that it was within her reach, but it didn’t quite register. It wasn’t until after she’d won the event that it all came to reality.
Her family couldn’t be at the meet that weekend. So the first calls went out to her parents, and to her twin sister, MaryKate, who attends Endicott.
“It was pretty cool to hear their reaction,” Masters said.
Last weekend at the NEICAAA indoor championships at BU, Masters bettered her record jumps from the week before. This time, her parents were in attendance.
“There’s a bunch of great athletes that compete at that meet,” Masters said. “At that point, my goal wasn’t to win New England’s. I really wanted to just get a better height and get another personal best.”
She ended up in a jump off with a Vermont vaulter. Masters cleared her first try at 13-3 but missed her following attempts.
“So we had to do a jump off and I had a third chance at that height to try to clear it.” she said. “I got my personal best. I cleared it, and she missed the attempt. I won the jump off. That was surreal because I didn’t expect to win New Englands.”
Her height of 13-3.5 feet (4.05 meters) set another UMaine record, and was just shy of the meet mark of 13-3.75 (4.06 meters).
She now has two America East Conference titles, six ECAC titles, and one NEICAAA win. And she’s broken or reset her own school record six times.
“To break another record the next weekend, my own especially, is surreal,” Masters said. “I’ve been putting all the work in, and it’s all coming together at once. It’s really good to see.”
Masters has wondered whether she should have red-shirted earlier in her career, giving her more time with the sport now. Still, she’s anxious to get on with life and a nursing career. Even though she knows her career is winding down, she’s ready for the transition.
“It’s definitely bittersweet, that this will probably end my senior year with indoor track,” Masters said. “It’s most likely going to happen, but I accepted that. I’m proud of what I’ve done with indoor.”
To qualify for Nationals, she’d have to be ranked among the top 12. She’s not ranked high enough,. so she’s just hoping to make this meet this weekend another good one. She set a the school mark last year in this same meet with a vault of 3.85 meters.
“My goal for the weekend is to be consistent, at least,” Masters said. “I really would like to get 13-3 again. Ideally, I’d like to place high as well because it’s a pretty big meet. I don’t know what I’m up against this weekend, but hopefully, I can try to place in the top three. That’d be great.”
Masters also runs the 60 dash and the 200 during the indoor season and the 100, 200 and the 4×100 relay during outdoors. She’s recorded 10 all-time marks in the 60 and 200 dashes.
Masters still has the outdoor season to complete, but she knows her track career only has a few months left. After the success she’s had this indoor season, she’s excited about what she might be able to do this spring.
“It was nice to get (this) goal out of the way for now, so I can try to set a new one for outdoor,” she said.
kmills@sunjournal.com
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