Olympic gold medalist Tim Mack and American record holder Jeff Hartwig will headline a field of athletes competing in the National Pole Vault Summit this weekend in Reno.
Mack, the 2004 Olympic champion in Athens (Olympic record height 19-feet, 61Ú4-inches), and Hartwig, the American indoor and outdoor record holder (his 19-9 mark outdoors in 2000 stands as the third best all time in the world) will be among a field of elite vaulters that will compete in the featured elite event tonight that will draw a capacity crowd to the Reno Hilton Theater.
Other featured athletes include Derek Miles of Sacramento, who qualified for the Athens Olympics and ended the 2005 season ranked No. 5 in the world; Brad Walker, who in 2005 vaulted to a silver medal at the World Championships in Helsinki; and Toby Stevenson, the Olympic silver medal winner in Athens.
Collegiate, high school and masters athletes will be on-stage Saturday. Idaho State is bringing a group of vaulters that is expected to include 2003 Bear River High School graduate James Litchfield.
Current American women's record holder and former world record holder Stacy Dragila, a 1990 Placer High graduate, will be in Reno but is not scheduled to compete. Dragila is a nine-time USA outdoor champion, two-time world champion and won the Olympic gold in 2000.
One of the athletes to watch Saturday will be Granite Bay High's Scott Roth, the two-time defending California state champion who could make an attempt at the national prep indoor record. Roth won at the Run for the Dream Invitational two weeks ago in Fresno, where he cleared 16-10 and had two narrow misses at a national record 17-7.