Golding ready for Starkville

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, June 1, 2004

[6/1/04]For the next four years, Austin Golding will be soaring over Starkville.

The St. Aloysius pole vaulter, who set a Class 1A record at the state track meet earlier this month, has signed to vault for Mississippi State. He’ll be the second Warren County vaulter on the Bulldogs’ roster, along with former Vicksburg High standout Chris Withrow.

Ole Miss also had recruited him, but wanted him to walk on. He had been leaning toward Mississippi State anyway, and when they offered him a partial track scholarship he was sold.

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“You only get a chance to do college sports once, and only a small percentage of people ever get a chance to do it,” said Golding, who follows his personal coach and former Warren Central vaulter Chris Moore to Mississippi State. “I never thought I’d get this kind of chance or anybody would want me to vault for them … I guess they see something in me.”

Golding brings an impressive resum to State. He won the Class 1A state championship in 2002, and finished third while jumping with a high fever on the day of the state meet in 2003. He was second in his freshman season in 2001.

This year, he claimed his second state championship as well as the Class 1A record he had been chasing for four years. Golding vaulted 13 feet, 6 inches at the state meet in Pearl. In practice, he has cleared 14 feet. Both are very good heights, but he knows he has to improve to succeed on the Division I level. College pole vaulters typically jump around 15 to 16 feet.

Practicing year-round, in a workout program designed specifically for tracksters, should help him gain the extra height, he said, and he doesn’t have to look far to see how quickly a vaulter can improve with the right training regimen.

Withrow’s personal best at VHS was 13 feet. Now a sophomore, he has improved that mark to 15 feet, 1 inch.

“I think I can be jumping 15 or 16 feet this time next year,” Golding said. “If I get on a track-based workout program and a sprint program, I don’t think there’s a cap to how high I can go.”

Golding also felt he had something to prove. State’s best vaulter this spring has been Trey Hardee, whose best jump has been 16-4.

Coming from a small track program, and being well below those marks, means there’s a lot of hard work in Golding’s future.

“My freshman year, track is pretty much going to be my main focus. Academics, too, but especially track,” Golding said. “I don’t want to be a one-and-done athlete.”