The top pole vaulter in Mississippi is a Coast high schooler. She’s in 9th grade.
D’Iberville’s Julie Segroves found herself locked in a duel with a senior pole vaulter from Louisiana over the weekend in the Mobile Challenge of Champions.
The two cleared the 11-foot bar before topping the bar at 11 feet, 6 inches. Then 12 feet. Then 12 feet, 6 inches. The bar was then raised to 13 feet, a mark that had never been touched by a girls varsity pole vaulter from Mississippi in an outdoor event.
Louisiana’s Ava Riche failed to clear it, but Segroves sailed on over, earning a spot at the top of the podium after taking down one of Louisiana’s top track and field athletes.
Segroves is only a freshman. The record she broke? Her own.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Segroves told the Sun Herald. “I wasn’t expecting to get 13 feet so fast. My main goal was just to get 12-6, and 13 was just to try it, and if you get it, you get it, and if you don’t, you don’t. I wasn’t too worried about it. I somehow managed to pull through on that last jump.”
Raised for pole vaulting
Segroves began practicing for the pole vault when she was in second grade thanks to her father, Jim, who was a Texas high school state champion in the same event and acts as her primary coach.
She got her competitive start in gymnastics where she won a level eight state championship before retiring after seven years due to a stress fracture in her back.
“Gymnastics gave me a lot of mental toughness,” Segroves said. “It taught me that you need to stay consistent to excel at a sport. It gave me a lot of courage and strength. Most of my strength, mainly my upper body and core, came from all those years of gymnastics.”
That strength she built up in gymnastics plays a major role in how she’s found so much success, so quickly. At just 5-foot-1 and 105 pounds, Segroves is able to use a pole rated to 145 pounds, giving her an advantage in every meet.
Segroves placed sixth in the Junior Olympics in sixth grade with an 8-foot-6 jump, and blossomed from there into a rapidly rising track and field star.
“It was seven years of gymnastics and seven years of soccer, those together was the secret sauce to get her prepared for her pole vaulting career,” Jim Segroves said. “It was a combination of those things. I had also had it on her radar since second grade, teaching her and doing drills to prepare her to start her practice in earnest.”
High school start derailed
By the time Segroves reached the end of middle school, she had gone from a breakout competitor to a full-on force at any event in which she appeared.
Her numbers were steadily climbing and always at the pinnacle of her class. She set the record for highest indoor jump for a seventh-grader at 10 feet, 9 inches.
She was moved up to varsity track in eighth grade by D’Iberville coach Carlton Cotton, where she set the 6A state record with a 12-foot, 7-inch jump in a meet at Moss Point.
“I like to progress slowly, like a gradual progression so I don’t peak out too soon,” Segroves said.
Then, an accomplished start to her high school career hit a snag.
Segroves hurt her knee while practicing and had to pull back the number of jumps she was doing. Shecontinued to compete, though, aiming for lower bars than she otherwise would have.
Yet, hobbled by her knee, she still won the state championship with a 12-foot jump thanks to careful height selection, and pacing herself throughout qualifiers and early rounds.
Trips to the doctor revealed she had tendinitis in both of her knees. She was sidelined from practicing in both soccer and track and field for nearly the first full semester of her ninth-grade year.
Back stronger and hungry for more
When she did return, it was with a vengeance.
With little practice and a lot of catching up to do, she went to work pushing the records she had already set.
She’s currently undefeated this season and has cleared 12 feet four times, including the new state record of 13 feet she set while competing in Mobile.
“I felt very accomplished,” Segroves said. “I mean, coming back from injury, I was really hoping that I would get at least 12 feet this year. But I got more than that so I was really happy.”
She’s the top-ranked freshman in the country and routinely out- her direct competition by wide margins.
“She has no competition,” Jim said. “It’s such a thrill to watch her at a meet because she’s almost like a rock star. The last girl will go out at eight feet or something and then Julie picks up her pole and doesn’t start jumping until 11 feet... They announce her name on the loudspeaker and everybody is in awe of this girl when she picks up her pole.”
Both she and her father are active champions, with Jim holding the ages 65-69 title at the moment. His high school title-winning 14-foot, 7-inch jump may even be in danger, but he’s not worried about his daughter taking over the family record.
“I would be ecstatic if that happened, it wouldn’t bother me in the least,” Jim said. “I would be more proud of her for that than I ever did... If she jumps higher than that in high school then that would be unbelievable.”
Segroves is aiming to win five state titles in vaulting before her D’Iberville career is done, and she is more than on her way to doing so.
