At the time, it was the worst possible thing that could have happened to Jillian Schwartz. Jumping over the hurdles as the top seed in the Illinois state track meet her senior year, Schwartz hit a hurdle, tumbled to the ground and badly broke her foot.
But that misfortune in high school has only turned into a blessing in college, because it enabled the sophomore to concentrate on the pole vault.
The track coaches were hesitant to strain Schwartz's foot again by having her practice hurdles extensively. And coincidentally, a new event was starting up in Schwartz's freshman year: the pole vault.
Schwartz had always wanted to vault in high school but couldn't convince her coach to train her because it wasn't an event for girls in Illinois. When Schwartz came to Duke, however, she was destined for the pole vault.
Through her life, Schwartz had been an extremely competitive gymnast. She reached the elite Level 9 in the gymnastics ranks and trained for over 20 hours each week. Because pole vault relies so much on body awareness and upper-body strength, gymnastics is a natural predecessor.
"Gymnastics helps a lot with body awareness," Schwartz said. "I know where my body is in the air. It's not always in the right place, but I know where it is."
Schwartz decided to run track in college instead of doing gymnastics because of the limited number of colleges with varsity gymnastics teams.
"I think I was ready to move onto something else," Schwartz said. "But if I'd gone to a school that had track and gymnastics, I have no idea what I would have done."
Instead, Schwartz had to compete in an event where she had no idea what she was doing.
"It was weird," Schwartz said. "I still don't have the technique down but it's getting there finally."
After jumping a personal best of 8-10 last season, Schwartz returned in the fall and jumped over nine feet on her first attempt.
"I don't really know what happened or how it changed," she said.
She is also competing in a sport which is changing rapidly itself. Since last year, women's pole vaulting has grown much more competitive. At this year's Raleigh Relays there were 41 competitors, compared with 15 last year.
Schwartz won her first pole vault competition two weeks ago at the Duke Invitational, the Blue Devils' only home meet of the year. The crowds cheering her on made the moment more exciting, though Schwartz herself was relatively unimpressed with her victory.
"There wasn't a lot of competition," she said, "and I didn't jump as high as I'd like to."
But Schwartz has been stacking up well against national competition. Her 11-1 personal best this year has qualified her for both the ECACs and the Penn Relays, and she sees the 11-7 NCAA provisional qualifying height as within range.
Schwartz has improved in the pole vault while simultaneously training in several other events. This weekend, she will compete in the ACC Championships in the pole vault, 100-meter hurdles, 4x100 and high jump.
"Most of the other pole vaulters don't do other events," she said. "It's better when I don't concentrate on one thing and overanalyze."
And Schwartz is even beginning to like track, a sport she initially found tiresome.
"I don't really like to run but I'm starting to like it more now," she said. "I'm getting more motivated."
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