February 06, 2025
La Salle County Prep SportsCompetitive Cheerleading | The TimesCompetitive Dance | The TimesGirls Wrestling | The TimesBoys Volleyball | The TimesBaseball | The TimesBoys Basketball | The TimesBoys Bowling | The TimesBoys Cross Country | The TimesBoys Golf | The TimesBoys Hockey | The TimesBoys Lacrosse | The TimesBoys Soccer | The TimesBoys Swimming | The TimesBoys Tennis | The TimesBoys Track | The TimesBoys Water Polo | The TimesBoys Wrestling | The TimesGirls Badminton | The TimesGirls Basketball | The TimesGirls Bowling | The TimesGirls Cross Country | The TimesGirls Golf | The TimesGirls Gymnastics | The TimesGirls Lacrosse | The TimesGirls Soccer | The TimesGirls Swimming | The TimesGirls Tennis | The TimesGirls Track | The TimesGirls Volleyball | The TimesSoftball | The Times
Prep Sports

Freak broken pole costs Harsted at 3A state

By Charlie Ellerbrock

Ottawa’s Ethan Harsted, shading himself from the sun and heat at the IHSA Boys Track and Field State Finals in Charleston, contemplates his involvement in the Class 3A pole vault competition and the harrowing events that led to his elimination from Saturday’s finals. (Charlie Ellerbrock)

CHARLESTON – While some would say that Ethan Harsted suffered a tough break, both literally and figuratively, during Friday’s Class 3A preliminary round here at the IHSA Boys State Track and Field Meet, he remains convinced he’s one lucky guy.

Things were going about as well as the Ottawa senior could hope in the pole vault competition that day when a freak accident altered the course of the weekend for him.

The pole, new to the program this season and one he had used in every meet, including to clear 13 feet moments earlier, suddenly and explosively snapped in mid-vault on his first try at 13-6, sending him into a backflip and crashing him face-first into the pit, showered with shards of fiberglass.

“I was really comfortable with it. This just came out of nowhere,” said Harsted, who this season had a personal best of 14-4 using the now broken implement. “The pole was 14 feet and was weighted to 170, and I only go about 138, so it should have thrown me up there pretty well. I had a beautiful plant with it and everything felt good, and it just snapped right in half. … It sounded like a gun shot.”

Though many vaulters have been seriously cut or even impaled during such an incident, Harsted was uninjured. However, he didn’t have a pole of similar flexibility to the broken one and was forced to continue vaulting with the only backup, a stiffer 15-0 pole he’d never used before.

Harsted admitted he “got lucky” twice when using the second pole, first to barely clear 14-0 for a spot in Saturday’s finale, and second to have only nine vaulters make 14-3. Rules call for 12 vaulters in the finals, so the advancers included the previous height of 14-0.

However, his luck soon ran out. He was unable to get the lift he needed from the second pole and missed all three vaults at Saturday’s opening height of 13-0.

“The second pole was longer than I’m used to and today it just wasn’t working for me, so I was out right off the bat,” Harsted explained. “It was a rough way to go out, but I was lucky enough to make the finals, which was my goal, and even luckier that I wasn’t hurt. It could have been way worse that what it was.”