July 23, 2003

By John Roth
Blue Devil Weekly

DURHAM, N.C. - The last athlete to compete in a Duke uniform this season was junior Brent Warner of the track and field team. And his final day on the job was a noteworthy one, as he tied for eighth place in the pole vault event at the NCAA Championships meet to earn All-America honors.

Warner, a native Ohioan, looked like an unlikely national qualifier in mid-June when he failed to clear the bar on his first two vaults at the NCAA regional meet in Fairfax, Va. But he made it over on his third attempt and went on to turn in a new career-best vault of 16 feet, 7.25 inches. That was good for fifth place and an automatic spot in the national meet at Sacramento.

A biomedical engineering major, Warner had been scheduled to start a summer internship at the National Institute of Health in Washington, D.C., on June 9. He had to delay that appointment by a week for his trip to California, where he had the best meet of his career.

Though seeded at the bottom of the 26-man pole vault field, he set a new Duke school record of 16-10.75 in the prelims and matched that again with his first vault in the June 13 finals. He was knocked out of the competition when the bar was raised to 17-5, but he still held on to a tie for eighth place to make the All-America list in his event.

"I was an outside shot to even make it out of regionals," said Warner, who took second place at the ACC meet in April. "I just wanted to go out there and have fun and impress some people. There was no reason for me to be nervous. Tied for the bottom seed, I had nothing to lose. I was very calm about it and had fun."

Warner's best outdoor vault entering the 2003 season was 16-4.75 his sophomore year, when he took third at the Penn Relays and was named the track team's MVP for his consistent performances in the three biggest meets of the year (ACC, Penn Relays, IC4A). His six-inch improvement by the end of his junior season enabled him to pass the school record held by his coach, former Blue Devil Seth Benson, who had topped the charts at 16-8.75. Now living in Charlotte, Benson sent his vaulters workout programs to follow during the week and then coached them at their meets on weekends. He made the trip to Sacramento with Warner.

"In high school I was one of the top guys in the state so I didn't have anyone to look up to," said Warner, who began vaulting in the seventh grade. "When I got here, Seth was the first vaulter I was close to who I could look up to. He was a good example for me as a freshman. His technique is excellent, he knows his stuff and he has the ability to transfer his knowledge to us."

Warner's success at NCAAs also enabled him to win the friendly season-long competition with his roommate, fellow pole vaulter Jeff Buttaccio, who was just a couple of spots behind Warner in fourth place at the ACC meet this year.

Both vaulters succeeded during a year in which it was not easy to do so. With the track at Wallace Wade Stadium closed all spring for a new installation, the Blue Devils had no outdoor practice area for their pole vault specialists. The athletes did their running workouts on the artificial turf field next to Koskinen Stadium, dodging lacrosse players.

All their vaulting sessions were indoors at the IM Building, where a vault box was planted in the floor. "That hurt us at the beginning of the outdoor season, because we weren't used to dealing with the wind," said Warner. "By midseason, it wasn't much of a factor any more."

Interestingly, Warner's grand season finale came just a week before former Blue Devil star Jillian Schwartz took second place in the pole vault at the USA Track & Field national championship meet at Stanford to qualify for a spot in the upcoming World Championships in Paris.

"With Brent Warner earning All-America honors in Sacramento and Jillian Schwartz making the World Championships team in Palo Alto, it was a great seven days for the Duke University vault program," said Duke director of track and field Norm Ogilvie.

Schwartz, who was a senior when Warner was a freshman, was a three-time All-America during her Duke career, capping it off with a second-place finish at the 2001 NCAA meet. She won three ACC titles and was named to the conference's 50th Anniversary all-star team this past year. Early in July, she took third place at one of the meets on the European circuit that leads up to the Worlds in August.

"Jill didn't try it until she got to college and she was just a phenom," said Warner. "She set the stage for the pole vault program at Duke. Because of her success, Duke began spending money to get us new poles and a facility. That and middle distance events have become the focus of our track program."

Duke looks to continue shining in the pole vault, as Warner and Buttaccio will be back for their senior years in 2003-04, while Laura Chen and Kristie Howard return on the women's side. Chen, a former California state champ in high school, placed sixth in the ACC meet as a sophomore this year.