The Fountain Hills High School athletic program saw many highlights in the 2018-19 school year, with one the biggest achievements being track and field star Madison George not only winning the pole vaulting state championship with a launch of 13’, but also setting a new girls Division III pole vaulting record in the process.

George, a senior graduating this Friday, is a driven individual. Once her mind is set on a goal, she said she does everything within her power and then some to accomplish it. Case in point, she only decided to start pole vaulting at her first track practice.

“I wanted to be a sprinter and a long jumper, so I tried out for those events but ended up not liking long jump,” George explained. “I had told my coach that I was a gymnast and he kind of just gave me the look and sent me over to pole vault.”

George remembers not really taking pole vaulting seriously at that first practice, but others around her saw seeds of greatness.

“I was thinking, ‘well this is kind of dangerous, I don’t think I am going to be good at this,’” George said. “Like, this requires a lot of time in order to get the technique down, but I stuck with it. We started with drills on the ground then, a couple days later, we got into the pit and I had a lot of fun with it. Mostly because I was a gymnast, I was pretty good at the drills, so my coach said I had a lot of potential and that got me excited.”

Madison was so excited, in fact, she had already decided on a goal for her future involving pole vaulting.

“We went to visit colleges in North Carolina and I remember being in a tour group at Elon University and the guide asked, ‘Does anyone here want to be a student athlete,’” Greg George, Madison’s father, said. “It was spring break so Madison had been vaulting for maybe three or four weeks. I am not even sure if she had a meet yet, but she raised her hand and said, ‘Do you have a track team? I want to pole vault in college.’ I was shocked. I didn’t even know if she’d be vaulting two weeks later.”

Fast forward three years from that moment and Madison is signing her letter of intent to pole vault for Elon’s track and field team.

It took a lot of time and effort in those three years for Madison to go from a jump of 7’ at her first meet to reaching the level of a state champion.

At the end of her sophomore year she started training year-round in a club team working with her coach, Nick Hysong, the 2000 Olympic men’s gold medalist.

Entering into this world of competitive pole vaulting, Madison has had the chance to meet some of the other top athletes in the sport, all with their own stories of how they got to be so successful.

“There is this national pole vault meet that I go to in Reno, Nevada,” Madison said. “You get to meet a lot of Olympians and current top vaulters in the nation. It is really cool to get to talk with them. There was this session where we sat in a circle and the Olympians would go through the circle and talk one on one with everyone. I found it really interesting that every vaulter has their own path. A lot jump high in high school and keep going. A lot of people don’t jump high in high school but something clicked in college or after, so it makes me feel good that I always have time to reach my peak.”

Madison has also made friends training for pole vaulting who help pushed her to do her best.

“I have a really close teammate whose name is Eden and she is, like, six feet tall so there is a lot of difference there between us,” George said with a laugh. “At first we weren’t jumping that high, but we were always jumping around the same height. Then I started to get better, then she started to get better, and it started a competition between us.

“This year we have literally been going one after the other every single meet. Like we both got 12’6 at a meet. Then the next one I got 12’7, then she got 12’8, then I got 12’9, then she got 12’10, then I got 13 and the day after she got 13. I swear, I wouldn’t be jumping as high without that because I am very competitive.”

That friendly teammate rivalry was partially what drove Madison to go for 13 feet at the state meet. The other drive was to perform big after a bout of pneumonia last year kept her from competing in her junior state meet.

“At the meet my coach was telling me that I need to pump myself up so, at the back of the runway, before every vault, I just screamed as loud as I could,” Madison said. “After I hit 13 feet I was so happy. It was just a lot of relief and also being like, about time.”

Now moving onto her college career Madison has hopes that her success will continue to come but, like always, she is focused on the moment at hand.

“The sky is the limit, basically,” Madison said. “I train with a lot of Olympians and Olympian hopefuls, so if that is in reach one day I think the coolest thing I could do is go to the Olympics. I would definitely not put that off. But right now I’ll be pole vaulting all throughout college.”