Pole Vaulter Grace Ridgeway Kicks Her Season Off With A Bang!


The Lovejoy Texas Express Holiday Invitational is becoming a regular event now. Lucas Lovejoy High School and Texas Express Pole Vault club have teamed up to ignite a jammed packed action pole vault meet. 

Track and field fans and athletes now get to watch and compete in December and an early season meet to see how the off season hard work is round out. 

The pole vault is one of the toughest and most technical events in our sport. However, when strength, speed, and technique are fluidly merged it is undoubtedly the most beautiful forms of athleticism in track and field.

Senior Grace Ridgeway competes for both Lucas Lovejoy the Texas Express club. This weekend she represented well for both of her teams with her first place performance.  Ridgeway vaulted for a big indoor PR of 12-6. That is over a foot and three and a half inches higher than her previous indoor best of 11-2.5.

 "I was really working on flexing in and pulling in to my top hand."

Grace Ridgeway - Lucas Lovejoy senior

Ridgeway didn't stop at the 12-6 height. She gave it quite a go at 13-1.5 with three quality attempts. She knows exactly where she needs to improve to get to that next height as she said, "I had the hip height, I just didn't drive enough, I should have used more left arm to get behind the bar."

Ridgeway is the classic example of the combination of the speed, strength, and athleticism that makes a great vaulter. Although she is a stud vaulter, she is quite the athletic trackster. Along with the pole vault, she competes in both hurdle events, the 100 and 200, as well as the long jump. Having 12.22 speed and endurance to go 43.8 in 300 hurdles Ridgeway brings all of her other abilities together to make herself an elite vaulter.


For an athlete that seems like she has it all, Ridgeway is still working hard. She has last year's UIL 5A pole vault state championship under her belt and she has signed to compete next year at the University of Arkansas. However, in the off season workouts the higher heights are what she has been working for. "I was really working on flexing in and pulling in to my top hand."

Last year at the New Balance Nationals Indoor, Ridgeway vaulted for that 11-2.5. This year, All-American honors could be a possibility. With a 12-6 jump on day one of her season, progression could see the top honors in her sport go her way three three months from now.

One thing is for sure, the future definitely is bright for the future Razorback. When she joins the Arkansas pole vault stable she will be getting instructions from one of the top coaches and the top talent in her craft. The pole vault athletes at Arkansas are some of the best in the business. They have three to four NCAA All-Americans on their current roster. Ridgeway says, "I think when you practice with better girls it makes you better, I'm really excited to practice with all of them."

They'll have to make room for one more as Ridgeway will be a future prime time candidate herself.