Jason Colwick - Up, up and away to a new world order

[Bubba PV]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spo ... 86364.html

Up, up and away to a new world order
Already the best in the U.S., Rice senior Jason Colwick has his sights set on global dominance and an Olympic medal in 2012
By JEFFREY MARTIN Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 25, 2010, 10:17PM

Beth Hall AP
Rice's Jason Colwick let it be known that winning the pole vault competition at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., last June was a big deal to him.

2010 C-USA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP
• When: Today and Saturday. • Where: • Yeoman Fieldhouse, University of Houston.

COLWICK'S MARKS
Personal bests

• Indoor: 18-7 • 1/4 • (5.67 meters), 2010 Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational

• Outdoor: 18-9 • 1/4 • (5.72 meters), 2009 Texas Relays

2009 NCAA Outdoor National Champion

18-81/4 (5.70 meters)

2009 NCAA Indoor National Champion

18-41/2 (5.6 meters)

NCAA INDOOR RECORD
Jacob Davis, Texas, 19-21/4, March 6, 1999

NCAA OUTDOOR RECORD
Lawrence Johnson, Tennessee, 19-1 (5.98 meters in a non-NCAA meet), May 1996

WORLD RECORD
Sergei Bubka, Ukraine, 20-13/4 , July 31, 1994
He came to Rice for the education, which makes Jason Colwick no different from the rest of the student body, and he can already envision using his majors in mechanical engineering and economics.

But he's not the same as his peers. Actually, in this country, he has no peer.

Colwick is the best pole vaulter in the United States. This isn't conjecture — this is fact. His vault of 18 feet, 71/4 inches on Feb. 6 at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb., set a meet and school record, and no one nationally has done better.

He is, according to Rice assistant coach David Butler, “unquestionably elite,” meaning the senior is the favorite to win the Conference USA Indoor Championship title this weekend at the University of Houston. In 2009, Colwick won the NCAA's indoor and outdoor titles, and he almost apologizes for those accomplishments, explaining how U.S. pole vaulting is in the midst of a “dip” in which no one has surpassed 19 feet.

There is some credence to his comments. The 22-year-old San Marcos native is ranked 12th in the world. Butler, however, believes global dominance for his star pupil is only a matter of time.

“With Jason, when he's feeling good and he's on, there is nobody that can beat him in this country,” Butler said. “The scuttlebutt — what I'm hearing, I'm on national staff, I know best of best, and I know the people who know this event around the world — is people in this country are saying he's the next one.

“I'm not trying to apply pressure, but he has the speed, the determination, the sheer willpower to be not just one of the best, but one of the best all-time.”

Colwick doesn't argue. But he's been thinking a lot lately about his future, maybe too much. The immediate future holds a fair amount of uncertainty. Surely his classmates can relate.

But he might have too many options.

“I didn't start looking at the big picture until I won my first national title last year,” Colwick said. “I came to get my degree, but now it's all blowing up in a big way. I'm trying to reach out and get some advice from people in front of me, and they've been telling me to just focus. … But that's not what I want to hear.

“I don't want June to come and not have a plan.”

Colwick loves what he does, suggesting the daily workouts have been a respite from his academic demands. Right now, the post-collegiate plan seems to be using his degrees for “side projects,” while giving all of his focus to his sport.

“If he stays healthy and keeps maturing, there's no reason he can't be an Olympic medal hopeful in 2012,” Butler said.

And that would be fine with Colwick.

“If you have a dream, you have to be fully committed,” Colwick said. “You can't spread yourself too thin. If I do this, I think I'm going to do it all the way.”

jeffrey.martin@chron.com