EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The Spartan Invitational is the only time all season Michigan State’s Track & Field team gets to compete at home. So, fifth year pole vaulter Trevor Stephenson made sure to make the most of his opportunity in East Lansing.
On Friday, Stephenson broke MSU’s outdoor season pole vault record with a vault of 5.51m, which broke Paul Terek’s record of 5.50m in 2002.
“Coach (Ceith Creekmur) actually talked to me a few days before the meet because he had to set the progression up for where the bar was going to end up at,” Stephenson said. “We started at 5.51m to break the school record and we went backwards from there.”
Stephenson started pole vaulting as a freshman in high school. His mom is the women’s track coach at East Kentwood High School, which is where Stephenson attended, and his curiosity as a freshman led him to becoming a second-team All-American in 2021.
“I was kind of set to be a hurdler/ 400m runner and I was just bouncing around the events, just trying to see what I liked, and I saw some people pole vaulting and said, ‘that looks like a lot of fun, can I try it?’ and my mom said, ‘Sure. Go for it,'” Stephenson said.
As cool as it is for Stephenson to own the outdoor pole vault school record, this isn’t his first time breaking a record at Michigan State. Earlier in the year, he broke the school’s indoor pole vault record with a 5.66m vault.
A lot of Stephenson’s success at MSU has to do with the mindset he had when he arrived on campus five years ago – “Aim for the moon, land among the stars.”
“I wanted to get the school records coming in. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get them, but over time, it took five years to get them, but I’m happy to get them,” Stephenson said.
