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Tuesday, April 29, 1997

Davis escaped a rut to vault into UT record books

By RANDY RIGGS Austin American-Statesman

AUSTIN - Long before Dan Pfaff began working on Jacob Davis' technique, he worked on his mind.

Davis arrived at the University of Texas last fall trumpeted as the top pole vaulter ever recruited by the Longhorns' track and field team. But Pfaff, a UT assistant coach and technical guru, saw a young man who, more than anything, needed a break.

"I think he came here a little battle fatigued," Pfaff said of Davis, the latest in a long line of quality pole vaulters from Orangefield produced by Joe Hester. "He came from a very high-powered program that trained hard and often. My No. 1 priority was to rejuvenate his desire to vault and just have some fun."

Mission accomplished. If Davis, a strapping 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pounder, has much more fun, he will find himself in the rarefied air of an internationally elite vaulter. It's a status he hardly envisioned for himself after junior and senior seasons in high school that were rather lackluster - by his standards, at least.

With his college career still in its infancy, Davis already has recorded the best indoor and outdoor vaults in UT history. At the Big 12 indoor championships in February, he soared 18 feet, 6-1/2 inches to tie the world junior indoor record set in 1989 by Maksim Tarasov of Russia. At the Texas Relays in early April, he cleared 18-5-1/4 for the school outdoor mark. That jump puts him in a four-way tie for second in the NCAA rankings.

The thrill is back.

"I think I went through a little bit of burnout my last two years in high school," said Davis, who took up the event in seventh grade and whose best vault for Orangefield came as a sophomore when he cleared 17-6. "I more or less vaulted because I was expected to, not because I wanted to. I guess I lost that passion for a while."

College coaches noticed.

"The rumor mill had it that he was an age-group phenom who'd burned out," said Pfaff (the first "f" is silent). "You'd be shocked at how lightly recruited he was. Jumping 17-6 as a sophomore, you'd have thought people would have been banging his door down. It was mind-boggling to me."

While Davis said he received many recruiting letters, he took only two trips - to Texas and the Air Force Academy. Had he selected the latter, he says, he probably would have discontinued vaulting.

Davis said the reasons for his inability to go higher than 17-4 as a junior and senior were twofold - he began having more of a social life ("Up until then, I didn't go out much or just hang out with my friends") and he began to tire of the training regime ("We'd vault two hours a day and on some Saturdays, and that can get old after a while").

Consequently, Davis admits he grew stagnant. In an incident that rather typified his last two years at Orangefield, he fell into the standard holding the bar while warming up for last year's state meet and lacerated his left knee, forcing him out of the competition before it began.

At Texas, Davis usually only vaults in practice once a week. The rest of the time is spent on technique and weight work. He also throws the javelin and long jumps, not for competitive reasons but to help improve his footwork and speed down the runway.

"His vaulting mechanics were already quite good, but we've changed his running mechanics," Pfaff said. "High-speed sprinting is really a matter of coordination. It's a very complex motor task. If we can get his speed going, he can go really high."

Davis already has gone higher than anyone in UT history. But just as important to him, he's having fun doing it.

"I've got the spark again," he said. "I'm really having a good time."

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