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NEW BRITAIN – It started when Sean Arms was four years old. His mother, Melissa, who had been a gymnast at Hand High School and went on to compete in college, showed him a video of pole vaulting.
“I said, ‘Look at this, Sean,’ and he said, ‘That’s so cool, I want to do it,’” said Melissa Arms, who is a volunteer assistant coach for the Hand track and field team.
Now Sean Arms holds state records in the pole vault, both indoor and outdoor, and Sunday, he won the Class MM state title with a vault of 15 feet – one foot, four inches below his best, which is the state record he set earlier this season.
“I’m OK with it,” said Arms, who is the defending State Open outdoor champion and who also won the indoor State Open title. “The most important thing today was to help my team get points. It helped with that. I did want to get 16 today. I was pretty close but I just couldn’t get it done. I wasn’t getting deep enough into the pit. My last one, I had good energy coming in, but I blew through it and hit it on the way up.”
He did indeed help his team win – he left the pole vault briefly to run the 4×100 meter relay, which Hand won in 42.63 seconds – and the Tigers won the Class MM team title with 88.5 points, ahead of runner-up Xavier (76). Hillhouse won the girls title (91 points) and Woodstock Academy (79), with Mercy third (77).
Arms, who will continue to pole vault at Sacred Heart, played all the traditional sports – baseball, soccer, basketball, lacrosse – growing up in Madison. When he was 8, he had a birthday party at a ninja gym and after that, he dropped all his other sports to do ninja challenge training and he ended up competing on the TV show, American Ninja Warrior Junior, where kids race each other on obstacle courses, when he was 10. Two years in a row, his mother said, he was the world’s strongest junior ninja in his age group.
In eighth grade, his interest in pole vault resurfaced.
“Sean has more body awareness than anyone I’ve ever met in my life,” his mother said. “And his mental game, I wish I had his mental game when I was a gymnast. He did America Ninja Warrior and parkour. The (ninja) kids he trained with are now on the adult show but he decided he was going to focus on high school.”
Sean didn’t want to do gymnastics but when he was 8, he asked his mother to teach him how to do a back flip.
“He learned it in like an hour,” she said. “And then there’s the fear factor. He goes cliff (diving). Anything I was told not to do (when she was a kid), he does.”
When he first started pole vaulting, Sean could get over the bar at eight feet. Now he’s doing twice that.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into it,” he said. “I was just living in the moment, seeing how good I could be.”
He started going to camps and doing club pole vaulting. He won the State Open outdoor title last year and the Class M championship. His mother said he was introduced to a different running approach technique this year and that helped him get to 16-4, breaking a 12-year-old state record set by New Fairfield’s Tim Murphy (16-3 1/2) at the Middletown Invitational earlier this spring.
Arms was going for 16 feet Sunday but didn’t quite make it. He still has the State Open next Saturday, as well as New England championships and the national championships in late June.
“He’s always been in competitive situations and that’s what helps him now,” Melissa said. “In Ninja, one tiny mistake and you’re out. That’s what helps him mentally.”
Cheney Tech sophomore wins 100: Cheney Tech sophomore Kimari Eady was so excited about running under 11 seconds in the 100 meters, he almost forgot he won his first state title.
“This whole season, I’ve been running 11 lows,” said Eady, after finishing in 10.94 seconds. “I’ve been training hard to get to running 10. So today, to run 10, that was huge for me. That was my goal, to break 11. I was very excited.
“I didn’t even think about that (that he won the state title). I’m really blessed to be here.”
Eady finished third in the 200 (22.38) behind Hand’s Lucas Nolte (21.84) and Rockville’s Otavio Pinto (22.22).
Since his school doesn’t have indoor track, Eady didn’t compete in indoor but hopes to be able to do it next year. Eady started running track last year and made it to the Class MM meet, but said he “didn’t do so hot.”
“This is huge for me,” he said.
Avon hurdler captures two titles: Logan Murray, a junior from Avon, won the 110 hurdles (14.66) in a personal best time and the 300 hurdles (38.80), his first two state titles.
Murray was a pole vaulter who started competing in the hurdles last season when he decided to train for the decathlon. But an ankle injury suffered in his last meet in the pole vault derailed him for six months and he missed the post-season competition, including the decathlon.
So Murray came a long way back to win Sunday.
“That was my best race,” he said after the 110 hurdles. “It was a PR by .4 (seconds). I’m so hyped about that. Before the meet, I did a lot of pre-training, stretching the hips especially. Not being too up in the head, shaking out, being loose – I felt good.”
Hamden wins Class LL boys title: On Saturday, it appeared that Greenwich had won the boys Class LL title, though Hamden was close behind. But one Hamden athlete, Marc Bennett, did not compete Saturday because of a religious exemption and he was allowed to compete Sunday in the long jump and triple jump. After competing with the Class MM athletes, Bennett’s finishes in the long jump (20-2 1/2) and triple jump (42-1 1/4) were placed into the Class LL results and he finished eighth and third, respectively, giving his team enough points to beat Greenwich 83-82 1/2.
For complete results of the Class MM meet, go to athletic.net/TrackAndField/641888/results.
Continue reading...
“I said, ‘Look at this, Sean,’ and he said, ‘That’s so cool, I want to do it,’” said Melissa Arms, who is a volunteer assistant coach for the Hand track and field team.
Now Sean Arms holds state records in the pole vault, both indoor and outdoor, and Sunday, he won the Class MM state title with a vault of 15 feet – one foot, four inches below his best, which is the state record he set earlier this season.
“I’m OK with it,” said Arms, who is the defending State Open outdoor champion and who also won the indoor State Open title. “The most important thing today was to help my team get points. It helped with that. I did want to get 16 today. I was pretty close but I just couldn’t get it done. I wasn’t getting deep enough into the pit. My last one, I had good energy coming in, but I blew through it and hit it on the way up.”
He did indeed help his team win – he left the pole vault briefly to run the 4×100 meter relay, which Hand won in 42.63 seconds – and the Tigers won the Class MM team title with 88.5 points, ahead of runner-up Xavier (76). Hillhouse won the girls title (91 points) and Woodstock Academy (79), with Mercy third (77).
Arms, who will continue to pole vault at Sacred Heart, played all the traditional sports – baseball, soccer, basketball, lacrosse – growing up in Madison. When he was 8, he had a birthday party at a ninja gym and after that, he dropped all his other sports to do ninja challenge training and he ended up competing on the TV show, American Ninja Warrior Junior, where kids race each other on obstacle courses, when he was 10. Two years in a row, his mother said, he was the world’s strongest junior ninja in his age group.
In eighth grade, his interest in pole vault resurfaced.
“Sean has more body awareness than anyone I’ve ever met in my life,” his mother said. “And his mental game, I wish I had his mental game when I was a gymnast. He did America Ninja Warrior and parkour. The (ninja) kids he trained with are now on the adult show but he decided he was going to focus on high school.”
Sean didn’t want to do gymnastics but when he was 8, he asked his mother to teach him how to do a back flip.
“He learned it in like an hour,” she said. “And then there’s the fear factor. He goes cliff (diving). Anything I was told not to do (when she was a kid), he does.”
When he first started pole vaulting, Sean could get over the bar at eight feet. Now he’s doing twice that.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into it,” he said. “I was just living in the moment, seeing how good I could be.”
He started going to camps and doing club pole vaulting. He won the State Open outdoor title last year and the Class M championship. His mother said he was introduced to a different running approach technique this year and that helped him get to 16-4, breaking a 12-year-old state record set by New Fairfield’s Tim Murphy (16-3 1/2) at the Middletown Invitational earlier this spring.
Arms was going for 16 feet Sunday but didn’t quite make it. He still has the State Open next Saturday, as well as New England championships and the national championships in late June.
“He’s always been in competitive situations and that’s what helps him now,” Melissa said. “In Ninja, one tiny mistake and you’re out. That’s what helps him mentally.”
Cheney Tech sophomore wins 100: Cheney Tech sophomore Kimari Eady was so excited about running under 11 seconds in the 100 meters, he almost forgot he won his first state title.
“This whole season, I’ve been running 11 lows,” said Eady, after finishing in 10.94 seconds. “I’ve been training hard to get to running 10. So today, to run 10, that was huge for me. That was my goal, to break 11. I was very excited.
“I didn’t even think about that (that he won the state title). I’m really blessed to be here.”
Eady finished third in the 200 (22.38) behind Hand’s Lucas Nolte (21.84) and Rockville’s Otavio Pinto (22.22).
Since his school doesn’t have indoor track, Eady didn’t compete in indoor but hopes to be able to do it next year. Eady started running track last year and made it to the Class MM meet, but said he “didn’t do so hot.”
“This is huge for me,” he said.
Avon hurdler captures two titles: Logan Murray, a junior from Avon, won the 110 hurdles (14.66) in a personal best time and the 300 hurdles (38.80), his first two state titles.
Murray was a pole vaulter who started competing in the hurdles last season when he decided to train for the decathlon. But an ankle injury suffered in his last meet in the pole vault derailed him for six months and he missed the post-season competition, including the decathlon.
So Murray came a long way back to win Sunday.
“That was my best race,” he said after the 110 hurdles. “It was a PR by .4 (seconds). I’m so hyped about that. Before the meet, I did a lot of pre-training, stretching the hips especially. Not being too up in the head, shaking out, being loose – I felt good.”
Hamden wins Class LL boys title: On Saturday, it appeared that Greenwich had won the boys Class LL title, though Hamden was close behind. But one Hamden athlete, Marc Bennett, did not compete Saturday because of a religious exemption and he was allowed to compete Sunday in the long jump and triple jump. After competing with the Class MM athletes, Bennett’s finishes in the long jump (20-2 1/2) and triple jump (42-1 1/4) were placed into the Class LL results and he finished eighth and third, respectively, giving his team enough points to beat Greenwich 83-82 1/2.
For complete results of the Class MM meet, go to athletic.net/TrackAndField/641888/results.
Continue reading...
