Nipomo High School pole vaulter Tevin Limon just keeps raising the bar on his own records.
At the Pac-7 league track and field finals on May 6, the sophomore set a new school mark by vaulting 14 feet, 4 inches, smashing his personal best by 10 inches.
“I’ve been working on really shooting up in the air,” Limon said. “On 14, I got it on the first attempt. Then they went up to 14-4 and I never thought I’d get it, but I did. It was pretty cool.”
Nipomo pole vaulting coach Nathan Shields credited Limon’s positive attitude and off-season work at a camp in Atascadero with helping him reach new heights.
“His work ethic is fantastic, and that’s what’s allowed him to do as well as he has,” Shields said. “When you watch him, as he smiles, it looks like the Mad Magazine guy. He’ll admit it as well, and that just keeps everyone loose around him, and he helps make his teammates better because of it.”
Limon is no stranger to the record books. Out for most of last season with an injury, he came back to set the school’s sophomore vaulting record in his first meet this year, and later broke the previous school record of 13 feet, 3 inches in April.
“We were saying 14 feet by the end of the year,” Shields said of his pupil. ”Some students you can just tell right away.”
Limon is currently practicing three times a week in preparation for the CIF playoffs on May 15. In addition to his pole-vaulting exploits, Limon participates in high jump, long jump, and triple jump and has also played football the past two years for the Titans. Pole vaulting, however, is his favorite.
“I love it. It’s not the normal thing to do,” he said. “You have to practice a lot. It’s a time consuming thing. You can’t just get up there and be jumping 15 feet. It takes time.”
This article appears in May 13-20, 2010.