BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
AUSTIN — Michael Boltie spent much of the season with the luxury of being the best. At Valley meets, the pole vaulter would often enter competition only after every opponent scratched out. A gold medal was often a gimme. Boltie was his own stratosphere.
Saturday, however, saw the McAllen Memorial senior grow accustomed to vaulting alongside superior talent while still holding his own. Though Boltie is used to flying solo at a height of 15 feet, he was lost in the mix at the UIL state meet.
“It was different jumping with eight guys at that height,” Boltie said.
But Boltie rose to the occasion, earning a bronze medal by clearing a height of 15 feet, 6 inches, one inch shy of tying his personal best. Boltie scratched each of his three attempts at 15-09, marking the only times he failed clearing the bar.
The rest of his jumps appeared crisp and effortless. Boltie vaulted past heights of 14-06, 15-00 and 15-06 on each of his first attempts with ease. Making it look easy is nothing new for Boltie, but the senior did so with a new wrinkle in his repertoire.
Boltie’s season-long weakness has been an inability to vault with larger poles. While he frequently used 15-foot poles to attack the bar, Boltie would often hesitate when using a 16-foot pole in an attempt to breach greater heights. Knowing the stakes, he prepared for state with the big toys.
“I just decided to face my fear and say, ‘You know what, I might die from this, but I’m just going to go ahead and do it anyway,’” Boltie said. “Then I just got on it, and it’s a dream. It’s a beautiful pole and it’s just fantastic.”
Boltie also placed sixth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.74 seconds.
DELAYED FINISH
Michael Gonzalez always wanted to get to compete at the state meet, but he never thought it would take more than six hours to do so. The PSJA Memorial discus thrower completed preliminaries before lightning storms caused an extended delay. While Gonzalez finished his final prelim throw before 12:30 p.m., his first attempt in the finals came after 6:30 p.m.
Gonzalez ultimately placed seventh with a throw of 169-05.
With so much downtime, Gonzalez took an extended lunch break, all the while remaining cognizant of the task at hand.
“It just helps make you more focused,” Gonzalez said of the delay. “Because it’s really all you’re thinking about, what you have to do once you get back out there.”
Gonzalez was the only Valley athlete whose event was interrupted by the storms.
OTHER UPPER-VALLEY ATHLETES
Weslaco High’s Stephanie Sauceda placed ninth at her state-meet debut in the 6A girls 800 run in 2:15.55. Karen Guerra of La Joya Juarez-Lincoln finished eighth in the 6A girls discus throw with a mark of 124-04.