NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
ELSA — Even state qualifiers break their poles. On the first day back practicing at Edcouch-Elsa after earning silver at the Region IV-5A meet with a jump of 13 feet, 3 inches, Bianca Cardenas heard the familiar sound of fiberglass and carbon fiber snapping as she attempted a jump.
The pole she used to win district and area titles, plus set what was then the Valley girls pole vaulting record at the Meet of Champions, was gone. She lay on the mat for a second in some pain, but she quickly recovered.
Losing your pole is a challenge, but Cardenas has been making due with poles that are less than ideal since the seventh grade. She says she was too chubby for the poles available, but she gripped lower to compensate.
“Every pole, there’s a different feeling to it,” Cardenas said. “As long as you have your adrenaline and you feel confident, then I feel great in all my jumps. It’s just more confidence than anything.”
She broke a pole at one of her first high school competitions, according to her longtime coach Jamie Ochoa. But after a few minutes of tears, she was back on a different pole and ready to go.
Victor Cardenas, her father and an assistant coach for the E-E football team, recalls the scariest fall taking place during her sophomore year in Port Isabel. All of those moments seem like distant memories now as the junior prepares for her first state trip.
At the beginning of this season, Bianca Cardenas’s personal record was a respectable 12 feet, 1 inch. That mark was enough to put the Yellow Jackets’ vaulter near the top of the Valley’s best rankings for the year.
“It helps when you have somebody like Bianca — a natural athlete,” Ochoa said. “She could have been good at any sport, but I’m just glad for my sake she liked what she did over here in the pole vault, and she stuck with it.”
Now, less than a week from the UIL State Track Meet in Austin, Cardenas has cleared 13-03 and has her mind set on a new personal record and a medal at the highest stage.
At regionals, she had the smallest pole of the three remaining competitors when the advancing height was 13 feet — a mark she hit for a new personal best just a week prior. She didn’t make excuses and beat out the third-place jumper.
“I just hope to compete as best as I can and show the other girls that I am able to compete with them,” Cardenas said. “I am limited on resources compared to them.”
With Cardenas’ pole gone, the RGV pole vaulting community stepped up. The Mid-Valley and Weslaco, specifically, have helped Cardenas prepare.
Weslaco High has offered poles used by former standout and 2017 graduate Sydney Salinas so Cardenas can get work on a bigger pole. Weslaco East allowed Cardenas to train on its pole vault runway and pit to avoid the strong east-west winds at E-E.
“It’s really difficult when you don’t have the best days,” Cardenas said. “In Edcouch, it’s always windy, and it’s really hard to work with the wind, because it’s coming from the side of us.”
Cardenas will hope to take the same path as 2010 state champion April Benavides, who leaped a 12-0 on her way to Class 4A gold.
That championship jump eight years ago won’t cut it this year. Cardenas has seen top competition already this season. Late in March, she jumped at the 91st Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, and her 12-06.75 earned her a silver medal in section B of the high school division.
She said she’s looking forward to a return to Austin, and she hopes to come back with hardware again.
“I jumped in the Texas Relays, and it was beautiful scenery. It is really awesome,” Cardenas said. “I’m just excited to go compete.”
Cardenas is one of two Edcouch-Elsa state qualifiers. Mackenzie Contreras will also compete in shot put at the Class 5A meet.