Hello and welcome to episode #18 of The Blue Water Running Podcast! This podcast features and celebrates the accomplishments of high school and collegiate cross country and track and field athletes from the Blue Water Area of Michigan.

Imagine this: you're standing in the middle of Hayward Field in Eugene Oregon, looking out at the crowd as you get ready to fulfill one of your greatest goals and dreams: competing for a spot on Team USA at the Olympic Track and Field Trials. Oh, and you’re also going to fling yourself almost two stories in the air using a thin pole. Our guest on today’s episode has done all of those things!

We will be talking with Kenzie Shell Beukes, a 2015 Port Huron Northern graduate who recently vaulted in the 2024 Olympic Track and Field Trials. Kenzie is an incredibly accomplished athlete: she was undefeated in pole vault during the regular season her entire senior year as a Husky, including winning the Division 1 state meet with a vault of 13’3”. That made her a back-to-back MHSAA champion, as she also won the state meet - indoor and outdoors - her junior year and was third as a sophomore. She set a state record in pole vault for indoor (13-6.00) and outdoor (13-9.00) and was a USATF Junior Olympics All-American. Kenzie went on to have a very successful collegiate career at the University of Oklahoma, becoming an NCAA All-American as a freshman, winning various invitationals and setting meet records, and graduating in 2019 as the school record holder in pole vault (at that time) at 14-5.5.

A little background on pole vaulting: according to historians, people have been vaulting since the ancient Greeks for non-competitive purposes such as jumping over walls (think castle invasion during battle), obstacles, or even to get from place to place across very marshy and wet areas. In some parts of Europe, they kept stacks of jumping poles at every house to cross canals without getting wet or to avoid long journeys to find a bridge. Pole vaulting is now a competitive sport for height instead of distance and has been an Olympic event for men since 1896. An American man won every pole vault gold medal from 1896 until 1968. The women’s pole vault has only been in the Olympics since 2000. The technology of poles has changed quite a bit as well, starting with ash or hickory wood, bamboo, aluminum, and steel, and then to modern fiberglass or carbon fiber.

I’ll leave you with this quote by Stacy Dragila, the first woman to win Olympic Pole Vault Gold when the event debuted in the 2000 Olympics in a vault of 15-1. The world record is currently 16-7.

“I think women have brought a lot of life back to the sport: first because a lot of people doubted women could actually do it well. Two, part of it is that old fascination some people have in watching athletes risk injury to win.” Stacy Dragila

Once again, thank you so much for tuning into today’s Blue Water Running podcast. I can’t wait to feature more cross country and track and field athletes from the Blue Water Area…stay tuned because it might just be YOU!

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