Rachel Laurent Hopes for More Next Season (LSU)

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http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20100 ... ext-season


Laurent hopes for more next season

Kelly McElroy
Staff Writer

Published: Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 11:35 p.m.

HOUMA — Rachel Laurent finished 2009 as the most prolific women’s pole vaulter in LSU history.

The Vandebilt Catholic product was the first Lady Tigers pole vaulter to ever take home All-American honors after placing fifth in the nation during the indoor season with a jump of 13 feet, 7 1/4 inches at the national meet.

She also jumped a then personal best of 14-1 1/4 at the Texas Relays during the outdoors season, won at the Penn Relays and went on to place 11th in the nation at the NCAA outdoor meet.

Last season as a sophomore in 2010, Laurent began clearing even greater heights.

In the indoor season, she reached a new personal best of 14-3 1/2 and was also second at the SEC indoor meet and third at indoor nationals.

“I came off my freshman year accomplishing a lot, and we started working on more technical things,” Laurent said. “It went really well. I jumped my personal best at least three or four times in the indoor season. I didn’t just jump it once, I jumped it consistently. I was very happy with that.”

But Laurent struggled by her standards during last outdoor season, again placing 11th in the nation at the NCAA outdoor meet after clearing 13-5 1/2.

She attributes those struggles to jumping on larger poles in an attempt to clear even greater heights and changing some of her techniques to be more fundamentally correct.

“After indoor and how well I was doing, we tried to make some bigger adjustments as far as the poles I was on. We tried to get on some longer ones,” Laurent said. “We wanted to go off the indoor season and keep going. The adjustments I am trying to make aren’t fixed overnight. It takes a while. That is what I was doing all outdoor season. I never really jumped the height I wanted to jump, but in the process, I was fixing little things that are going to be key.”

More recently, Laurent placed third at the NACAC Under 23 Track and Field Championships in July in Florida with a mark of 12-9 1/2.

Laurent said though she may not have cleared the heights she wanted during her sophomore outdoor season, she feels the work she put in will leader to bigger things next season as a junior.

“My coach and I talked, and we feel like I ended the season fixing a lot of things and that come next track season, I’ll be where I need to be,” Laurent said. “It’s going to be a great year next year. The adjustment had to be made at some point, so we figured why not make it now earlier in my career so I can build on it even more next year.”

She said finishing in the Top 8 at the NCAA national outdoor meet in 2011, which would give her All-American status, is a major goal.

“I want to improve some more in my heights and place again at indoor and at outdoor for nationals,” Laurent said. “I have yet to place (all-American) in outdoor nationals (Top 8). I also just want to relax, have fun, take it meet by meet, steadily improve and be consistent.”

Local pole vaulting coach Kevin Trosclair, who has worked extensively with Laurent, said right now her strength is once she gets in the air.

“Once she leaves the ground, in the air, her technique is as good as anybody out there,” Trosclair said. “She just has to be able to get to that position to utilize it. It’s just something she has to work through.”

Last season there were three other pole vaulters with local ties competing on the college level in the state.

Amber Laurent, who is twin sisters with Rachel and also a Vandebilt product, competed at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and will too be a junior next season.

“UL-Lafayette has a new volunteer vaulting coach there in (former World Class vaulter) Greg Duplantis, and I think she likes working with him,” Trosclair said. “With Greg there, I think she is on the right page.”

Jaora Johnson is another Vandebilt product at LSU. With a handful of vaulters ahead of him at LSU, he participated in the men’s pole vault as a freshman last season and set a personal best mark of 16-01 while competing mostly at home meets.

“He jumped pretty well,” Trosclair said. “I think he was motivated by this season, and he’ll be ready next season.”

Brianna Bergeron, an H.L. Bourgeois product, is going to be sophomore at LSU this year and jumped for the women’s team as a freshman. She competed in seven meets and reached a personal best height of 11-1 at the LSU Tiger Relays, good for 12th place.

“Bri battled some back problems (during her freshman season),” Trosclair said. “She had a better year as far as competing on a higher level with her confidence and stuff (as a senior in high school), but if she can work through that and come back healthy, I think she’ll be all right.”

Over the summer, Trosclair has taken his pole vaulting club to a new location off Coteau Road in Bayou Blue where numerous athletes from the area and from other places in the state train.

“It has really worked out pretty well,” Trosclair said. “We have a lot of kids show up mostly from the area and a few from New Orleans. It’s been fun. The kids are making progress. The only bad thing is it’s the hottest time of the year. It gets hard to keep them focused sometimes, but you see them making the progression. With the kids that have really put the effort in, you will really see some improvement in the spring.”

Trosclair said he welcomes all ages and skill levels of pole vaulters to his club.

For information, call him at 985-381-1410.