One of the main pieces of advice that has been told to us again and again is to not run with anything clutched in our hands due to the possibility of it becoming an unintentional self-inflicted weapon. Well, what happens when sprinting with a giant pole is what you chose to devote all of your after-school time to, including meets on early Saturday mornings? Turns out that pole-vaulters are the exception to the rule. You may be wondering where these exceptional athletes practice because of the snow and ice that is covering the pole-vaulting station at the track. Turns out that Freedom’s resident pole-vaulters hop on a bus after school to hone their skills at Geneva College to get ready for the upcoming meets that are usually against a multitude of schools. Pole-vaulting may look easy and quite amazing, but an athlethe’s technique has to be just right, or everything can go wrong – most of the time these can make great stories and a great lesson on what not to do. “My freshman year I was going to take off and I slipped and fell and coach dove under me like he said that he would,” said Senior Breanne Prinkey. Junior Kaylin Vickinovac said that it is easy to mess up footwork, which can ruin the whole pole-vaulting experience, and that you need to keep steps and speed in mind while pole-vaulting. Along with gaining knowledge from mistakes, Vickinovac said that what she loves most about pole-vaulting is “that you never stop learning.”