By Deven McCann
BYU pole-vaulter Alicia Thompson is just waiting for her chance to show what she can do. She will get her chance next season.
Thompson, a sophomore from Glendale, Ariz., said she was a little intimidated when she first arrived at BYU, but is convinced she can compete at the university level.
“I was a little overwhelmed when I first came here to BYU because it was a Division I school in the Mountain West Conference,” she said. “But I know what I can do and I look forward to my chance.”
Thompson walked on at BYU after a successful high school career.
When she entered ninth grade, she had no plans of pole-vaulting. Thompson was a swimmer. She lettered all four years in swimming and earned region champ her senior year in the 500-meter.
She also was region champion in the 4X100m and 4X50m, but still no thought of track.
“At our high school pole vaulting was not offered to women until my freshman year,” she said.
“The coaches came to the swim team and asked us if we wanted to pole vault for the track team -and I decided to give it a shot.”
Thompson admits it was a little difficult at first but once she got the hang of it, she fell in love with the sport.
“The best feeling in the world is flying through the air and clearing that bar and then watching the bar sit there as you drop to the mat,” she said.
Thompson won the region championship her first year in the pole vault. She took second place at the state championships her freshman year and senior year.
She competed in the Great Southwest Meet, which invites the top athletes from Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, where she placed ninth in the pole vault.
Thompson decided to walk-on at BYU and says she is getting better every year with the help of the coaches.
“Coach Poole is always trying to make us better. He is a great coach,” she said.
She said staying healthy is a key to her success at BYU. She tore her ACL during her junior year of high school at the district meet.
The bad knee did not keep her from traveling to Europe that summer with a school group.
“I didn”t want to have surgery because then I would have had to hobble around Europe on crutches,” Thompson said.
Instead she postponed surgery and just wrapped the knee tight until she returned home. Swimming helped her to rehabilitate quickly and she was back for her senior season.
Thompson red-shirted her freshman outdoor season at BYU because of a torn quad that was not healing fast enough.
Now she is healthy and looking forward to her next indoor season. She has begun training for her next opportunity to show what she can do.
“I just need to work hard, listen to coach and give it all I ”ve got, and I”ll be ready for next season,” she said.
