The fact that High School North junior Kacper Rzempoluch became a Meet of Champions pole vault qualifier this past winter is pretty amazing, considering the way things got started.
In a nutshell, he checked off a box on a form that he really didn’t want to check off, then had that check mark ignored by his coach, only to have that same coach finally acknowledge what Rzempoluch checked off when he least expected it.
“The backstory with him is funny,” Northern Knights coach Brian Gould said.
And it certainly needs explaining.
It started in 2013, when Gould passed out sign-up sheets to that season’s winter track and field candidates, having them indicate what events they wanted to try. Rzempoluch checked off 400 meters and pole vault.
When the season started, Gould only ran the freshman in the 400, completely ignoring the pole vault because he missed it on the form. Serendipity eventually came along, as North needed a partner for pole vault standout Alan Wang at an indoor relay.
“Kacper was pretty fast and pretty tall,” Gould said. “So I grabbed him and I said ‘We need you to try this event out so Alan could vault.’ He later told me he checked off pole vault. I completely missed that and it was purely coincidence I happened to pull him that day. I just said ‘You look like a pole vaulter, come over here.’ It’s funny how things work out.”
What’s even funnier is that Rzempoluch wasn’t too upset about initially not being asked to pole vault.
“I thought he kind of forgot about it and that I was off the hook with vaulting,” Rzempoluch said. “I was a freshman at the time, and I wasn’t really excited to vault, I just wanted to do the 400.”
So why sign up?
“I never had the opportunity do it but it sounded cool,” he continued.
When Gould beckoned him to partner with Wang, it wasn’t so cool anymore.
“Once asked me to do it,” Rzempoluch said, “I was absolutely terrified.”
The story could have had a quick ending. Rzempoluch ended up vaulting the rest of the winter and no-heighted (failed to make a successful jump) in every event. Gould was certain that when spring season came along, he would have had enough and would just focus on running.
The coach got a pleasant surprise when Rzempoluch showed up with a pole in his hand.
“After the first (winter) meet I told myself that I would continue with pole vaulting,” Rzempoluch said. “I just enjoyed it overall. The people that always are in the event are great people, they’re fun to be around. The event is one of the hardest in track and field, which I guess is why I’m drawn to it.”
In his first spring meet, Rzempoluch cleared 10 feet, and a career was born.
“That all came just from the work he did during the winter season,” Gould said. “He just had a tenacity and determination for success.”
Rzempoluch had an uneventful freshman spring season — he no-heighted at the Mercer County meet and finished 17th in Central Jersey Group III with a vault at 9-0. He started to learn the craft, however, and started to read up on it, watch YouTube videos, and pick brains.
“In my spare time, that’s basically what I do,” said Rzempoluch, whose father is a senior engineer for a large telecommunications company and mother is a homemaker. “I try to focus on finding new ways to improve my technique. Even if I don’t know, I’ll just go around and ask people who might know.”
He returned in the winter to finish fifth in the Mercer meet at 11-0, and tied for sixth in the Central Jersey Group IV meet at 11-0. He did not advance, however, due to more missed attempts.
“It was disappointing at first,” Rzempoluch said. “But I looked past it and used it as motivation to keep on training harder.”
It worked. In the spring he finished second in Mercer County with a vault of 11-0 and finished fifth in CJ IV at 12-0 but no-heighted in the state meet. Along the way, he pulled into a four-way tie for the school’s outdoor record at 12-6.
“I told him he has to break it by the end of this year,” Gould said. “It’s hard writing four long names into that one little space.”
The progress continued this past winter Rzempoluch tied the school indoor record of 12-0 when he finished fourth at the Lavino Relays.
He won the North Jersey Group III championship and then shattered the school mark with a 13-6, good for a tie for second in Group III. In his first Meet of Champions appearance, Rzempoluch went 13-0 for 10th place.
“The Meet of Champs was great,” he said. “It was a humongous learning experience, especially being around guys who vault so much higher than me. It was great to pick up some of the stuff they were showing.”
Rzempoluch won his sectional title with a pole loaned to him by South Brunswick High School coach Dan Mura. It was Mura’s college pole, and he felt the length and weight would suit Rzempoluch, which it did.
He is advancing at such a rate that he has outgrown that pole, but winning the Group III championship with it likely provided a boost in confidence.
“Winning any meet is hard,” Gould said. “He’s won his share of dual meets in the spring, but winning a championship meet is tough.”
With the spring season approaching, Rzempoluch hopes to reach 15-6 and is looking for another Meet of Champions berth. He does not like naming particular goals, however. “I want to take every single meet one meet at a time instead of trying to look into the future. That eventually leads to missing steps in the process of being a champion.”
Gould feels that Rzempoluch should continue to progress as long as he maintains the same outlook he has had from the start. It becomes more tedious now, as the coach noted, “With that event, the better that you get, the harder you have to train for even smaller increments of improvement.
“He’s got all the physical tools,” the coach continued. “He’s fast, he’s strong. He’s electric leaving the runway. He can really jump. We used to always say pole vaulting was for the crazy guys. It’s a fearlessness, it’s a scary event, you’re getting way up there. Those mats don’t look so big when you’re 14 feet in the air. It’s a lot of courage.”
Kacper admitted he had to develop that courage when starting out.
“The whole upside down thing was like a complete train wreck at first,” he said. “But once I got it down it really helped. Once you get over being upside down, there really is no fear. But before that you have to trust yourself.”
Gould has complete trust in Rzempoluch when it comes to his work ethic and desire. He noted that Kacper also runs cross country and, unlike other “field” guys from the team, he doesn’t do it just to get in shape. “He gives a great effort every day,” the coach said.
Rzempoluch’s continued improvement is a combination of numerous things. He is a student of the sport, and he has vastly increased his strength and speed thanks to hitting the weight room. He enters the spring season saying he needs to “tweak” a few things in his jump, and knows that constant practice will lead to positive results.
“I think the key is the mindset you have before the vault,” Rzempoluch said. “The confidence level needs to be high to achieve what you want to achieve, especially in pole vault. And that comes from repetition. You just keep telling yourself you can do it with the things you know you can do.”
Gould has no concerns there.
“He really knows the event,” he said. “A lot of kids now aren’t necessarily students of their event. He’s kind of an old-school kid in that regard. He’s passionate about it and he studies it, and really puts 100 percent of himself into what he’s doing.”
He just needed to make that check mark a little darker when he first signed up.
#b#More Track Results#/b#
At the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III Meet at the John Bennett Indoor Athletic Complex on February 20, High School South’s Tim Bason and Christina Rancan each won the 1600 meter run. Rancan also placed third in the 3200 and second in the 800, while Kathryn Schoenauer finished second in the 55 meter hurdles.
The High School North 4×400 relay team of CJ Markisz, Miles Fye-Moore, Evan Francis, and John Owens placed third.
Rancan also won the 1600 at the Meet of Champions on February 27. Bason placed 32nd in the 1600, and North’s 4×400 team placed 24th.
