Freier achieving her goals one bar at a time

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Desiree Freier is going to Austin, Texas this week full of excitement and confidence, as well she should.

The senior from Northwest High School in Justin is already the national record holder in the girls pole vault (14-6 indoors, 14-3.25 outdoors) and there is a strong possibility that she could go even higher on Saturday at the UIL state championships at the University of Texas.

Freier (rhymes with 'flyer') is doing things never seen before in the pole vault at the high school level. At the Region 1 meet on April 26, she cleared the bar at 14 feet and then took solid attempts at 14-9. On her best try she brushed the bar off with her hand -- the final piece of her body to pass over it.

If she makes that height on Saturday, she will have a half-foot lead on every other high school girl in the history of the event. And she won't be done. Freier intends to compete for a berth on the U.S. world junior team that will convene at Eugene, Ore. for IAAF World Juniors in July.

Keep in mind, at the time Freier was born, on July 24, 1996, the world record in the women's pole vault was 14-7.

"What she's doing is very special," said her coach, and brother, Devin Rodriguez. "The biggest thing with her is she's very strong mentally. She's been through adverse conditions on and off the track and always shined. I never once thought she was slacking."

Freier's development and progress in the sport are tied to growing up in a family where vaulting is discussed daily, and the training center that is literally in her backyard.

Freier's stepfather, George Rodriguez, vaulted for the University of North Texas and held the school record there for 20 years. His son Jeffrey was a 17-6 vaulter at UT-Arlington and his oldest son, Devin, vaulted for McNeese State.

In 1998, George Rodriguez started the Texas Pole Vault Club and later built the training facility for Elite Vaulter Sports Complex. Pole vault training is literally a family business.

And Freier, already, feels like pole vaulting is a full-time occupation.

"I work on pole vaulting like it's my job," Freier said.

She started tinkering with the vault at age 10 and has maintained focus on the family sport ever since. Her first competition came in the seventh grade and by the eighth grade she was vaulting 10-10.

Then, in a single meet in the summer before she entered high school, she beat her PR by 13 inches with a clearance of 12-1.

The three vaulters that she has studied the most are Sergey Bubka, Renaud Lavillenie and Jenn Suhr -- all of them Olympic gold medalists.

Freier, who will attend Arkansas next year, said her No. 1 goal is to make the 2016 Olympic team.

That dream is two years away but the way Freier is progressing it seems that anything is possible.

At 5-feet-0 and 125 pounds, Freier would seem to be at a disadvantage against the elite women of the sport. Suhr stands six feet tall. Word record holder Yelena Isinbayeva is 5-9. The two other women who have cleared 16 feet outdoors -- Svetlana Feofanova and Yarisley Silva -- are both 5-3.

"I was cheated," Desiree said, expressing a sense of humor. "The three main things you want to have as a vaulter are to be strong, fast and tall. I have two out of three."

Devin Rodriguez said Desiree can overcome any disadvantage with her speed and power.

"She's as fast, if not the fastest, of anyone (in high school vaulting)," he said. "She has a very good vertical (jump). And she is powerful. If you can move that pole to vertical, that's what you want."

What's more important than the height of the hand hold, Rodriguez said, is "the fluid movement of the jump."

And Desiree, whom he describes as "a ball of muscle," compensates for a lack of length with a compact center of gravity and the force she uses to plant the pole.

She can jump on poles rated for 165-pounders and they practically sling-shot her upwards.

"We always heard people say that (Desiree) looks like a gymnast," Rodriguez said. "She had a complex about that but she's coming to realize who she is, and is proud of who she is."

Even after breaking national indoor and outdoor records this year, Freier said she was unable to believe what she'd done.

But she is being comfortable with what she can do. Freier said she isn't out to break records as much as she's aiming to meet her own goals and expectations.

At recent meets, Freier hasn't bothered with trying to raise her own outdoor record by an inch or two. After making 14 feet -- her new baseline -- she asks that the bar be placed at 14-9. That is her next goal -- to jump a foot higher than she did in 2013 (13-9).

A third straight Class 5A Texas title, another national record -- those things are a byproduct of achieving the next goal.

And along the way, you can bet that her family and everyone else at Elite Vaulter Sports Complex is savoring every moment of the journey.

"Her whole year has been nothing but storybook," Rodriguez said.