COLUMBUS — Starting a meet vaulting near your all-time best was a challenge for Carrick Dobran Friday.
The Conneaut senior competed in the Division III pole vault during the Ohio High School Athletic Association state championships at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.
“Normally when I get to that height, I have already had 10 live jumps with a real bar,” Dobran said after failing to clear the opening height of 13’0.
Bloom-Carroll’s Dominic Knapp ended up winning the D-III pole vault at 15’10”, followed by Perry’s Traxton Richards at 15’6”.
Dobran said that experience was much different than a normal meet.
Conneaut boys track coach Tyler Pew said Dobran is everything you want in athlete, especially with work ethic and attitude.
“He’s upset with himself, but he is not going to let it define him,” Pew said. “We are just extremely proud of him for getting down here.”
He is part of a resurgence of the Conneaut High School track program which was a fixture at the state meet in the late 1980s and ‘90s.
Pew has coached Dobran since his freshman year.
He has only been a Conneaut coach for three years, but assisted him in pole vault while a coach at Edgewood.
The two days in Columbus were still an enjoyable experience for Dobran.
The senior arrived on Thursday to check out the surroundings and watch his long-time summer camp friend from Cincinnati Country Day junior Luke Schnieber, who set the Ohio pole-vault record with a vault of 17’5”.
Schnieber and Dobran met years ago at a camp called Summer’s Best Two Weeks in Western Pennsylvania.
Team Dobran was out in force Friday as 20 friends and family members made the trip to Columbus. Several of them also wore special Carrick Dobran pole vault shirts.
Dobran is planning to attend Muskingum University in the fall and study exercise science. He also plans to continue his track career as a pole vaulter and possibly as a decathlete, competing for points in 10 different events.
They have a training program that isn’t event specific, but designed to make the athletes faster and stronger, Dobran said.
Dobran said he plans to continue working on the pole vault this summer.
He improved drastically throughout his senior season.
Dobran earned Ashtabula County championship honors with an effort of 12’0” at the end of April, and a trip to state from the Division III regional meet last week in Austintown Fitch.
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