On any other occasion, a top clearance of 17 feet, 3/4 inches would be a disappointment for Tommy Skipper.
But after sitting out the last nine weeks to recover from knee surgery, Skipper’s performance at Saturday’s Oregon Twilight was just what the sophomore sensation needed.
Skipper took third in the pole vault during his outdoor season debut at Hayward Field, but numbers weren’t the focus of the day for the Sandy, Ore., native.
During the nine weeks he spent recovering from a surgery to repair a small tear in the medial meniscus cartilage of his left knee, he had attempted only one vault from a full approach.
Skipper would have been able to practice last week but was forced to take it easy after “tweaking” his left hamstring.
In all, Skipper said he was pleased with just being healthy and able to compete again.
“After nine weeks of not competing and only getting one jump in this week, it was kind of tough,” Skipper said. “I know where I’m at right now, and we just have to build on it each and every day.”
Skipper failed his first two attempts to clear the bar at 17-3/4 before he soared over it with ease on his third try. He then passed at the next height of 17-4 1/2, opting to attempt his next vault at 17-8 1/2.
While Skipper’s usual fire and determination were present, his technique was too rusty for another clearance, and he failed on his next three attempts.
Although Skipper voiced his pleasure about being back in front of Oregon fans, the
competitor in him crept out during post-event interviews.
“I honestly thought I was going to be able to come out here and jump 18 feet no problem,” Skipper said. “It looks like that wasn’t the case.
“I was very, very sloppy in my technique. I have to iron out those problems. I was concentrating on so many different things today. My run, just being able to take off from the ground, (and) I was winded. There were just a lot of things I was worried about, so I wasn’t able to put enough focus on just the pole vault aspect of it. With more practice all those things will come and evolve.”
Now that Skipper has returned to the runway, his focus is back on patching holes in his technique. With the Pacific-10 Conference Championships taking place in Los Angeles this weekend, pole-vaulting coach Mark Vanderville will be working hard with Skipper, as the Ducks will rely heavily on the sophomore at the point-scoring meet.
“I think he’ll be fine,” Vanderville said. “I don’t have any concerns about what he’ll do at Pac-10s. This was huge just to get on the full approach and just get through it healthy and feel good about it afterwards.”
Before surgery, Skipper was named West Regional Indoor Men’s Athlete of the Year in March by the U.S. Track Coaches Association
after winning the NCAA indoor pole vault title. He also posted the regular indoor season’s top
collegiate mark with a vault of
18-6 3/4.
In 2004, Skipper topped the indoor (18-8 3/4) and outdoor
(18-10 1/4) lists with school record-breaking marks. The
latter mark
earned Skipper an NCAA
title.
Skipper also won the Pac-10 decathlon title in his event debut in May 2004 with an NCAA automatic score of 7,589. Though he hadn’t competed in many of the events for nearly a year, Skipper bested his nearest competitor by 105 points.
With wins in the pole vault and decathlon, Skipper helped Oregon to a second-place finish at least year’s Pac-10 Championships.

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