Athens Christian senior, Tennessee commit shatters GHSA pole vault record at A-DI finals
This year's GHSA track and field state championships have been a stage for the immense talent the Athens-area houses.
Athens Christian is the third boys program to welcome a new state champion and record holder in senior Clarke Byram. The Tennessee-commit earned the Class A-DI state record for pole vault at nearly midnight on Thursday in Rome after jumping 16-feet — his previous best was 15-feet, 2 inches.
"It was just a crazy rush of excitement," Byram said. "I'd spent the whole day visualizing what I was going to do, thinking about the positions I was going to hit in the air to make sure I stayed on the pole and everything."
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Coach Tim Cummings said Byram cleared the first two heights (13-6 and 14-foot) in one attempt each and technically won the event at 14-foot-6. But he wanted to keep going. State records can only be set at the state finals and 16-feet had been Byram's goal all year.
He put the bar at 15-3 and cleared that just as easily to break the state record, just to "get it out of the way," Cummings said. Nine more inches was all he needed, and he luckily had some more gas in the tank.
Cummings said each athlete has about seven good vaults in them, and with three attempts per height, Byram was already at five, running dangerously close to the edge of exhaustion.
The first attempt at 16-feet, he ended up coming down on the bar with his hand, scratching the mark. He'd cleared it, but because of the contact, it didn't count. But that helped his mental game. He achieved it, even if it wasn't perfect, so he could do it again. His confidence multiplied.
So, he tried again. The night sky shone bright above him after four hours of rain delay, but he was not going home quite yet. He was determined to reap what he'd been sowing all year. They placed the bar at 16-feet again and he found himself sprinting down the runway, a quick prayer to God whispered into the wind.
Halfway through his comedown to the mats, he started yelling in pure joy. He'd done it. He'd set the state record and a personal record in his last high school meet ever. A real dream come true, four years in the making.
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Byram's pole vault accomplishment was the first of three over the weekend, as he went on to compete in two hurdles races on Friday and Saturday. He set personal records in both of those races as well, taking second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.03 and sixth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.73.
He only got into track and field because he injured himself during eighth grade playing baseball and decided not to return when he got to high school. Instead, Cummings told him he had the form of a pole vaulter, and that's when it began. With the trust in his training, he's headed to Knoxville this fall with the achievement of a lifetime. And who knows, maybe he'll do something bigger at the June Adidas national meet to kickstart the next step on his journey.
"I'm really, really proud of him and I hate to see him go," Cummings said. "I'm going to miss those 10-points automatic from every pole vault competition we ever went to (because he's that good)."
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Clarke Byram third to bring 2024 GHSA state track record, title to Athens
