TACOMA — With every vault and every arrival on the mat, W.F. West senior pole vaulter Amanda Bennett felt dizzier.
In between attempts at the 2A state pole vault meet Friday at Mount Tahoma High School, she sat on the turf or the bench and downed water or Powerade just to have a chance to continue through the day. On multiple occasions, Bennett was close to passing out.
She wasn’t even certain that she would make the trip to Tacoma this weekend, let alone take home the pole vault state championship. Bennett persevered through her ailment and converted a 10-foot-9 vault, a personal record, in a jumpoff in the final round to clinch the crown. After clipping the bar on the first two attempts, she cleared it on the last vault of her career.
“I was fighting for my life today because I’ve been sick for the past few days. I thought I was gonna pass out today. I honestly wasn’t even gonna come to state this year, but people told me I should just come just in case I felt better,” Bennett said. “I’ve been taking a lot of cold medications. I had something different to think about than being nervous.”
Bennett, who picked up a third-place medal in javelin on Thursday, notched her second state first-place verdict of her career after winning the javelin title in 2023. In just her second season as a pole vaulter, the W.F. West senior is the first Bearcat to win the event at state since Ashley Wildhaber in 2000.
“I think a jumpoff is a lot more nerve-wracking, so it gets the adrenaline going, which makes you jump higher. I think that’s really what helped me,” Bennett said. “I knew that I had to leave it all out there because it was my last opportunity.”
Even after her championship had been secured, Bennett still went up to staffers and told them that she was not planning to jump at 11 feet, to which the staffers replied that her day and ultimately her career were done. Physically, she didn’t have another vault left in her, but mentally, the competitive clock kept ticking until that moment.
“I can’t express how much this sport has done for me and just put me in a great mindset and taught me so much about life. To win this today, this is really special to me,” Bennett said.
Her coaches, Jennifer Chittenden and Don Rinta, gawked at her mental toughness through the long day.
“She’s just a competitor. She just wants to better herself. I’m incredibly proud of her ability to push through,” Chittenden said. “I never expected this after seeing her warmups and all the jumps she had to do. I was just hoping for her to clear a few heights, but she definitely surpassed my expectations.”
Rinta, a retired track coach of over four decades with the majority of his tenure spent at W.F. West, described Bennett’s effort as “amazing” and said the Lane Community College signee is as mentally tough as any athlete he’s come across.
“All of the athletes that compete at championship levels have this mental toughness that puts them above other athletes. She just doesn’t want to lose,” Rinta said. “I love her like a daughter.”
This season more than any other, Bennett knew what she was capable of and leaned into that edge, pushing past any setbacks or illnesses to find ways to improve.
“To say that I am a state champ in pole vault, the most technical and hardest event, is definitely special. I feel like I had something to prove, considering it’s my second year doing this,” she said. “I proved to myself that no matter what I’m going through and no matter my mental state or physical state, I can do whatever I put my mind to. I was even telling my coaches and a few of my teammates this morning that I knew my mind could do it. I didn’t know if my body could do it, so my mind had to convince a lot of my body.”
Tumwater junior Wendy Ferrel also competed in the event but couldn’t advance to the finals after failing to clear 8-6, ultimately finishing tied for 14th at 8-0. Her teammate, junior Abigail Krause, missed out on being a shot put finalist after measuring in at 33-2.75 on her first throw to place 12th.
