Physical coordination, a peaceful mind, and a passion for the art of pole vaulting send Chesterton sophomore Claire Thomas to 10 feet, 3 inches and a fourth-place finish at the Portage regional meet, surprising even herself

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Not all of the many clutch performances at last week’s regional track and field meets were rewarded with making it to this week’s state meets in Indianapolis.
The best example of a Chesterton athlete exceeding expectations in a pressure-packed situation to come up just short of a trip to state came at the southwest corner of the infield at Portage’s football/track stadium.
Chesterton sophomore Claire Thomas, who took up pole vaulting in the spring of 2025, came into last Tuesday’s regional meet with a lifetime best vault of 9 feet, 6 inches.
She entered the regional competition at 8-6 and cleared the bar five attempts in a row, the last two at heights she had never reached. Thomas’ vaults looked so similar each time, from her approach, to her plant to her pole bend to her clearing the bar to her landing on red pads that looked soft enough to draw crowds at a mattress store, to her stoic seat on the turf near the runway as she emptied her mind before getting up and repeating her routine so precisely.
She cleared 8-6, then 9-0, then 9-6, then for the first time 10-0, then 10-3 and then and only then did she display emotion befitting an athlete having the performance of her lifetime. Landing softly on her back and looking up to see not so much as the slightest wobble, Thomas got onto her feet, raised her clenched fists and broke into a huge smile. Then she made a beeline to her coach and they both put one hand on the pole to steady it and slapped a gentle high five with the free hand.
In clearing the height that earned her fourth place, Thomas surprised even herself.
“I had a good feeling about 10, but I was not expecting 10-3,” she said afterward.
“I’ve tried to go over 10-foot bars and bungees in practice and I was really close to making it, so I was feeling like it was definitely possible today. But I haven’t gone at it enough to know whether I was going to get over 10-3, so that was definitely a surprise.”
Her first try ever at the height was successful and she had not missed once all day. Then she made three attempts at 10-6, the third one, she said, the closest to being successful.
Gaining 9 inches in one week is not something any vaulter expects to do, but one set of veteran pole vault eyes didn’t reveal any shock.
“It’s pretty unusual,” Chesterton pole vault coach Jim Raffin said. “But it’s funny, it didn’t surprise me in a way because she’s been improving and we were having some practices where things were cooking.”
Thomas made strides in the postseason as a freshman as well, hitting her career high with an 8-6 at sectionals and matching it at the regional meet. As of April 22 her freshman year, Thomas’ best was 6-6.
Raffin cited her developing good form quickly as a big factor in doing better than most so new to the event.
The teacher and the pupil agreed about the source of this season’s big upward climb: bending the pole much better. She accomplished that, Raffin said, by becoming comfortable with moving the top hand higher.
AI app Grok informs that bending the pole “stores energy (like a spring). When the vaulter plants the pole and drives into it with speed and force, the pole bends. This converts the vaulter’s kinetic energy (speed from the run-up) into elastic potential energy stored in a bent pole. … As the pole straightens (unbends), it returns the stored energy to the vaulter. This ‘recoil’ helps thrust the vaulter upward, adding significant height beyond what their run speed alone could achieve.”
It goes on to sum it up: “Run fast, plant pole, bend pole (store energy), pole unbends (release energy), fly over the bar.”
The big bend in Thomas’ pole was more noticeable than ever at the regional.
Raffin said that in the practices leading up to the meet they worked on “getting her hips up because she does a really nice swing and turn, but sometimes she goes in and turns too early. And today, she was actually sticking with her swing and getting her hips up before she turned, and that was the difference. She’s starting to really bend the pole and that’s when it gets exciting.”
In order to get used to moving the top hand higher to bend the pole Thomas used lighter poles to get the hang of it and then graduated to her competition pole.
The pole she uses at meets is 12 feet tall and is a 115. Thomas explained what the latter number represents: “It’s based on your weight, so if you’re 115 pounds, then you would use a 115 pole. I’m actually on a bit lighter pole (than her weight) because it helps me to bend.”
In preparing for the regional, Raffin also stressed the importance of repeating every detail of her routine for every vault because he noticed a little vault-to-vault variance at the Chesterton sectional.
Thomas executed those orders superbly. After a vault, she sits on the turf, quieting her mind and giving it a break from thoughts of vaulting. Slipping into Zen mode is not a big leap for a girl who is not one to talk for the sake of hearing herself talk. She makes her words count and embodies the cliche “still waters run deep.”
“I’d say I’m pretty good at that, but I would say it has improved a lot, especially this year during pole vault specifically,” she said of putting her mind at rest. “I practiced it a lot. It’s not something that I can just tell myself I’m going to do and then it happens. I have to practice it and develop it over time. When I’m sitting down beforehand, I like to try to calm my mind and get into the headspace that I need to be in. And then once I stand up and get ready to go, that’s when I start thinking about what I need to focus on and what I need to improve.”
Thomas also runs the 100-and-200-meter sprints but the pole vault is her main focus and it shows in her results.
She blends the physical aptitude to incorporate suggestions in coordinated fashion and a brain adept at moving new information from learned to hardwired, swiftly and permanently.
“Claire’s extremely smart, a very coachable kid and just a good, good kid,” Raffin said.
The final element that stimulates Thomas’ constant improvement is her passion for the art.
“I just found that pole vault looked to be fun, so I thought I would try it and I really love it,” she said.
Thomas shared what she loves best about it: “A lot of the time when I’m in the air, I don’t really fully understand what’s happening, or I can’t fully see it. But I’m always able to see once I’m over the bar. That feeling when I know I’ve cleared it and I’m still falling, I’m just so happy in that moment.”