Kingsway trio tops the charts

Ryan Sharp stood on the runway and looked around.

As the South Jersey Group 4 pole-vault competition at Egg Harbor Township was concluding last Friday, Sharp and Kingsway teammates Dylan Altland and Chad Shire were the only ones left.

"It's the coolest feeling ever," Sharp said. "You look, and it's just three guys from Kingsway warming up to jump. You have all these people watching, and all you can think about is that we just put up 24 points for our team. All you can think about is that a bomb was just dropped on this meet."

Altland won the event. He jumped 14 feet, 6 inches. Sharp and Shire each jumped 13 feet to take second and third, respectively. Kingsway earned 24 of its 89 points in the pole vault and ended up winning South Jersey Group 4.

Another competitor asked Altland, "Why are you Kingsway guys so good?"

All three credit Jeff Riggs, the team's volunteer pole-vault coach. In addition to Altland, Sharp, and Shire, the team has two vaulters, Jacob Metheny and Ryan Evernham, who each cleared 11 feet this season and broke the school's freshman record, but they could not compete in sectionals because the school could enter only three competitors.

"It's not like you just have these guys that come in," Sharp said. "Our coaching staff looks at guys out on the track, and they're really good at picking guys out for events."

Riggs credits his athletes. Along with the "luck" of having so many talented athletes, he said he believes the pole vaulters build off each other. Last year, Kingsway's Ivory Yorker finished second in sectionals. Yorker was the one who started the trend.

"A big part of it is Ivory," Riggs said. "When Ivory started, he's a little, 120-pound kid. He wound up jumping on a 150-pound pole - that's 30 pounds over his weight - because he worked hard.

"Looking at Ivory, Dylan got better. Looking at Dylan, Ryan got better. Looking at him, Chad got better. The freshmen are building right onto that now."

"It's a lot better when you have so many more people helping you out," Shire said. "It just helps a lot having that many people pushing you."

Altland and Sharp, both seniors, try to keep the tradition alive in the freshmen.

"If you didn't make it to states, you're not really allowed to practice anymore," said Altland, a Rutgers recruit. "We told these two freshmen that they're allowed so that they can work on things.

"Jacob, the one who jumped 11-6 in practice, he's considering doing lacrosse or something dumb. I'm going to college for this. I didn't jump 11 feet when I was a freshman, and I'm going to college for this. You're going to jump higher than me. You have to stick with this."

Altland received the seedings from one of his coaches for this Friday's state Group 4 competition at Egg Harbor Township. He's tied for the top seed in the pole, and Sharp and Shire are tied for the fourth seed.

Kingsway coach Mel Carter can't remember three pole vaulters from the same school taking the top three spots in sectionals. Riggs can't remember one school doing so in any event in South Jersey.

Regardless, Altland already has his eyes set on doing it once more, on a bigger stage.

"We can one-two-three again," Altland said. "If it happens this week, that'd be even crazier."