Local talent featured in The Pole Vault in The Plaza at Mercato

The track at Evangelical Christian School feels like home for Drew McMichael. He was the star for the Sentinels, even setting the state record at 17′ 2″. This sport was his life.

“It’s like a combination of multiple sports you got the track aspect of running fast,” McMichael said. “You got the gymnastics aspect of going up and over a bar. And you got the crazy aspect of going full speed and trying to jump as high as you can.”

In 2019, after qualifying for Olympic trails while at Texas Tech, McMichael retired from the sport. Because the same year, he married his wife, Lindsey. So McMichael made the decision to put family first.

“I’ve been a competitive athlete since as long as I can remember,” McMichael said about the challenges of leaving the sport, “And going back to being a Joe Schmo was tough giving it all up. The whole thing about the Olympics in the back of your head but I’m extremely happy. You know started the family​.”

A year and a half ago, McMichael became a dad to his son, Hunter.

“I love being dad,” McMichael said. “I mean it’s a blast. I have a crazy he’s a 19 month old so he’s keeping me and my wife on our toes. But yeah it’s fun. I always thought my identity was in pole vault and now being a family man having kids of my own it’s like man this is where it’s at.”

McMichael’s only competed once since hanging up his spikes, the inaugural Pole Vault in The Plaza.

“We’re on a track right now, nobody can really be close and watch,” McMichael said. “You have to sit in the stands. But the whole runway is lined with people watching you. “

This year, he’s back with his son watching him.

McMichael said, “the reason I want to jump this year is so my son can watch me. Cause I don’t know how long my body is going to hold up.”

He added, “hopefully I can show him his dad was pretty good we’ll see how we jump.”

When Havana Layton decided to start vaulting at Naples High School, she wanted to keep swimming, which she competed in since she was five. Layton always dreamed of being a college athlete. But as a junior, Layton was sidelined.

She explained, “I kept getting these really bad shin splints. Every day I’d just keep pushing through it because swimming taught me to just push through things. So I really didn’t know how bad it was until I found out that I gotten a stress fracture. And I fractured both my fibula and my tibia. And so I had to stop I didn’t even do a single meet my junior year, which is the most important year for college recruiting.”

Despite those injuries, and a broken ankle her senior year, Layton turned her dream into a reality. She signed to be a dual sport athlete at the University of Vermont, even setting a personal record of 10 feet in a fully healthy freshman season.

“All these injuries have taught me just that you’re if you keep a good attitude and keep your mental game tough and you can preserve through anything,” Layton said.

Now, Layton is back home for the summer ready to compete in The Pole Vault in The Plaza.

“Street vaults are a lot different than a normal track meet,” Layton explained. “The energy is just so much more because people are just lining the runway, which at a track meet no one is around you.”

The Pole Vault in The Plaza starts Friday at 4 p.m. and continues Saturday (8 a.m. – 4 p.m.)