Hog Calls

Morris vaults into a deep talent pool

Sandi Morris of Arkansas celebrates after clearing the bar in the pole vault Saturday, March 14, 2015, in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.
Sandi Morris of Arkansas celebrates after clearing the bar in the pole vault Saturday, March 14, 2015, in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Sandi Morris faces the first un-American Fourth of July of her life.

The South Carolina native and now graduated University of Arkansas All-American pole vaulter debuts internationally today at the IAAF Diamond League meet in Paris.

"She has never jumped in Europe," Arkansas women's pole vault coach Bryan Compton said. "I think maybe she jumped in the Pan-Am games but never in Europe."

Morris vaults in a new place in a new way.

"She is starting a new career," Compton said. "She has signed with Nike, and now she is a professional pole vaulter. She is going to jump where everybody is trying to make money. She's not vaulting for fun anymore. She'll figure that out when she gets over there."

Morris certainly had fun and then some vaulting for Arkansas during her senior 2015 indoor and outdoor seasons.

Morris won the SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor vault titles for league champion Arkansas teams, won the NCAA Indoor vault for the first national championship team in UA women's athletics history, briefly held the college indoor record and set the college outdoor record (15-5 3/4) before placing second (15-3) to college indoor record-holder Demi Payne's 15-5 at the NCAA Outdoor in Eugene, Ore.

At the USA Championships, Morris was second (15-3) with Payne (15-1) third. Reigning Olympic champion Jenn Suhr -- the American record holder at 16-2 -- won at 15-9 3/4, which is best in the world for 2015.

Their 1-2-3 placing at the USA Championships means Suhr, Morris and Payne will represent the United States in the World Championships next month in Beijing.

Morris will sample her first worldly competition today in Paris.

"I was just looking at the entries and, boy, if she gets fifth in this meet she is probably going to be doing really well," Compton said Wednesday. "Jenn Suhr is leading the world, but there are two or three girls just centimeters behind her. Sandi will get a feel for how good those girls are."

Compton doesn't discount anything that Morris could achieve even at this belated debut to her professional season, but he said he would like to see her surpass 16 feet in the 2016 Olympic year.

"That's reasonable," Compton said. "We have jumped bars that would get us to the medals here in practice. The problem is learning how to put that all together in a meet and relax and don't get all tight. She has got a lot of horsepower, so when she gets nervous she kind of changes it a little bit. Technically we did not have a good meet at the USA Championships."

The fact that Morris cleared 15-3 despite technical difficulties has Compton imagining Olympic feats if she is technically sound.

"That shows you how good she is, that she can jump subpar and still make the [U.S.] team," Compton said. "I think if she gets her technique right and gets on a roll, she will jump up there with the big girls right at 16."

Sports on 07/04/2015

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