Last Saturday, April 7, senior pole vaulter Mitch Kendra was not expecting much to happen. 24 hours before the meet he didn’t even expect to compete.

Due to the low temperature outside, head track & field coach Michelle Cross opted to bar most of the team from competing at the John Homon Open in Alliance, Ohio. But the pole vaulters would be jumping indoors, so Cross called Kendra and junior Josh Olive to see if they’d still be interested.

Kendra agreed, even though he hadn’t jumped in a few days, and had spent the day prior touring Washington D.C. with the Department of Communication. All in all, he was less than prepared.

Still, with an opportunity to compete, he didn’t want to turn down the chance

So, there he stood, on the runway, going through the motions.

***

Kendra has held the title of school record holder in the pole vault since his sophomore year, when he jumped 4.20 meters—about 13.8 feet. But that’s never been good enough for him.

He started pole vaulting during his freshman year of high school, motivated by his older brother who also pole vaulted.

“Obviously, like a younger brother, I wanted to do what he did,” said Kendra. “And then as I got older, I always wanted to beat him.”

Kendra competed with his brother for two years as a freshman and sophomore in high school, and then continued on his own—he didn’t have his brother to compete against, but he had a different goal to work toward.

“I always wanted to go 14’6” in high school because that was the school record and that’s what [my brother] was always pushing for,” he said.

From that point on, Kendra was shooting for the Trinity High School pole vault record, at 4.41 meters. He improved steadily throughout his junior year, clearing 12 feet, and he was confident.

But he never got it.

Midway through his season during his senior year of high school, Kendra suffered from a collapsed lung, a common medical condition that occurs when the lung doesn’t grow at the same pace as the chest cavity, allowing air to fill the space between. What normally can be solved with a simple procedure and a chest tube took several weeks of recovery for Kendra. He wasn’t able to train at all, let alone have a shot at breaking the record.

“At this point I wasn’t sure if I was going to college yet or what I was going to do or what I was going to study or anything,” said Kendra. “And then I was getting recruited for football and track and I was like ‘holy crap, I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to exercise, like recreationally, let alone competitively.’”

Kendra had no choice but to shift his focus—finishing his senior year as best as he could—but never reaching his goal.

***

Since coming to Waynesburg University, Kendra has broken the pole vault record time and time again—so many times that he doesn’t remember the amount off the top of his head. But it was never satisfying. He still hadn’t reached 14’6”.

Everyone continued to congratulate him as he made new personal records, even winning PAC Championships. None of that mattered to him.

“It was tough because when you plateau, you’re thinking [negatively],” he said. “If I’m consistently jumping 14’, it’s like, ‘OK, I’m still getting up high enough to win meets and do well, but that’s not where I want to be.”

And it wasn’t easy. In the spring, Kendra had to balance academics with early morning football practice, lifting midday and pole vaulting in the afternoon. It was easy to feel overwhelmed, but he kept telling himself that this would make him better. He was close—six inches to be exact.

“It’s kind of like everything, you just keep going because you want to get better and even if it’s like tough—you need to push through it because you need to be better,” said Kendra. “To be your best self, you need to be willing to go through the struggles and everything and that makes the final destination or whatever worth it.”

Then last year, in the last meet of his junior year, Kendra reached 14’6” exactly, at the Great Lakes Final Qualifying Meet at Ohio Wesleyan.

“I couldn’t be happier even though I didn’t get it when I wanted to,” Kendra said. “I was getting better, like every year I’ve gotten consistently better.”

***

That wasn’t the end of the story for Kendra. While he had finally reached the height that had eluded him for years, he still had another year of competition ahead of him. For him, jumping any higher at this point feels like a bonus.

That brought him to last Saturday.

Kendra was able to jump multiple times—climbing in height with each one.

First 3.99 meters. Then 4.14 meters. Miss. Miss. 4.29. 4.44. Miss. Miss.

At this point, Kendra had broken his record again, making it a fraction of an inch over 14’6”. The bar was still raising, though, and Kendra still had jumps left.

After two more misses, Kendra cleared the next height, at 4.59 meters, about 15’3/4”. He broke the school record yet again, this time by more than 6”.

***

Like every record before, the hunger to reach greater heights drives Kendra on.

“You reach your goal that you’ve set for years, and then you set new ones,” Kendra said.

His new goal is set at 4.72 meters—about 15’6”—which would guarantee him a spot in the NCAA DIII National Championships.