By Barry Levites
Laura Chmielewski is used to breaking records.
In 2004, Chmielewski set a Northeastern record for pole vaulting at 12′ 9.5 at the New England Indoor Championships. She then broke that record again in January of 2005 at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, vaulting 13′ 6.5.
On Saturday, Chmielewski made a triple Lutz by breaking a third record in one season, by clearing 13′ 9.25 at the NCAA Championships, placing sixth at the tournament, and sixth in the nation.
Chmielewski, a junior graphic design major, came only three inches short of tying the current national champion, Amy Linnen, of Kansas University.
“It’s exciting [to be ranked sixth in the nation for pole vaulting],” Chmielewski said. “I’m disappointed though, I wish I had trained harder.”
The new record has earned Chmielewski All-American Honors, a feat not achieved by a member of the NU women’s track team since 1996, when Theresa Findlay earned the same title in the weight throw.
Brenner Abott, the long jumping and pole vaulting coach for the Northeastern women’s track team, commented on Chmielewski.
“Laura is just as good as, or better than, any other vaulter in the NCAA championships,” Abott said. “She has an amazing amount of power in her takeoff.”
Abott said Chmielewski’s only weakness is her form. “As she clears the bar, she goes over crooked,” he said.
When the pole vaulter clear the bar, the vaulter takes off with her back facing the bar. While clearing the bar, the vaulter must turn her body so that her stomach faces the bar.
Chmielewski clears the bar without turning her body, so that her back faces the bar as she sails over it.
Abott said that fixing that one flaw in her form would increase Chmielewski’s height.
“If Laura would flip over to her stomach, she’d add another six inches to her jump,” Abott said. “She would jump 14-and-a-half feet, maybe even 15 feet.”
Fourteen and a half feet is currently the NCAA record.
Chmielewski plans to train for the Nationals. She said she’s hoping to get scouted and head over to Europe.
“I hear that track and field is huge over in Europe,” she said.
