Last winter, pole vault was a completely foreign concept to Seneca High School junior Brittney Raffo. She had never competed in pole vault before, instead focusing on gymnastics for most of her childhood.
This winter, Raffo isn’t just competing in pole vault, she’s jumping her way up the state performance lists and into the record books.
It’s been a whirlwind year on the runway for Raffo, as she went from learning the sport of pole vault last spring to setting a new record at the South Jersey Group III sectional meet in February and qualifying for the NJSIAA Meet of Champions.
Raffo’s journey into pole vault was an easy one thanks to the skills she learned as a gymnast. Raffo competed for many years at Will-Moor Gymnastics in Mt. Laurel.
“I’ve done gymnastics my whole life,” Raffo said. “(Pole vault) was just something I was interested in.”
There is a lot of crossover between the skills Raffo used in gymnastics and the skills she uses in pole vault. Raffo’s favorite apparatus in gymnastics was the vault, an event featuring a sprint down a runway similar to how athletes sprint down a runway in pole vault.
Raffo also liked how athletes in pole vault go upside down, something she enjoyed doing in gymnastics.
“My favorite part about pole vault would be going upside down,” she said. “There’s not many other sports where you can go upside down.”
As last spring wore on and Raffo got more interested in track, she began practicing pole vault skills at the gym more than her gymnastics skills.
“I think everything transitioned to pole vault. It’s helped me a lot,” Raffo said. “I would go to the gym and I would only do stuff that would help with the pole vault.”
Raffo’s first season last spring had its ups and downs.
“There was a meet where I had no height, I didn’t clear seven (feet),” she said. “But by the season’s end, I was starting to get better numbers.”
Raffo managed to qualify for the NJSIAA Group III finals and hit a nine-foot vault at the group championships. The jump was tied for the best vault for the girls’ team for the season.
Entering the 2015–16 indoor season, Raffo was poised to break out. She set a new personal best and broke the Seneca school record at the NJSIAA Group III Relay Championships on Jan. 17 with a 11-foot vault. Raffo reached 11 feet again at the Morris County Coaches Invitational in Staten Island, N.Y., on Jan. 27.
The biggest improvement Raffo has made this season has been with steps down the runway and building momentum into the vault.
“Since last year, I understand the technique more and how it’s supposed to look,” she said. “I’m more aggressive with it. I’m definitely still learning.”
Raffo entered the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III meet with a legitimate chance of breaking the meet record of 10-feet, 7-inches set in 2012 by Moorestown’s Alexandra Elder. Raffo eclipsed the mark on her final attempt of the meet with a 10-foot, 8-inch vault.
“I was really excited, because it was on the last attempt,” Raffo said.
Raffo had a 10-foot vault two weeks later in the NJSIAA Group III Championships, qualifying her for the Meet of Champions less than a year after she picked up the sport. At the Meet of Champions, Raffo tied her personal best with an 11-foot vault. Her attempt was good enough to finish in fourth place.
Raffo’s early success has her confident she could be one of the state’s best athletes before she graduates. Raffo gave up gymnastics in January and is now focusing even more on excelling in pole vault. With the spring track and field season and her senior year still to come, Raffo has lofty goals she still wants to achieve.
“By the end of next year, my goal is to hopefully be at the top of the Meet of Champs,” she said.
