Head coach Brad Moore saw a familiar face was back in Sequim High School’s spring practices, as SHS’s track and field squad began prepping for the 2023 prep season.

“I’ve known Mirek since he was a little kid, since he was this high,” said Moore, his hand just a couple of feet off the ground.

“He always had this ‘jump first, think later’ attitude.”

Moore said that, still sporting that attitude, SHS senior Mirek Skov is reaching some impressive altitudes.

With just a few days left before this year’s postseason meets, Skov has the top boys 2A pole vault mark in the state of 14 feet.

And there’s plenty of room for improvement, said Moore, now in his 28th season leading the Wolves.

“He has put in a lot of time and worked on his speed,” the Sequim coach said of Skov. “I honestly feel he could hit 15 feet with the right pole.”

For Skov, launching himself into this sport has family roots: his father Kjel was a pole vaulter. His mom Elizabeth was an assistant coach at Sequim High as well.

“It’s an interesting sport,” Skov said at a practice last week, in between vaults.

“You’ve got to be a special kind of crazy.”

Making his mark

The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out all high school spring sports in 2020, including Skov’s freshman season on the track team, and in the following season his first recorded vault height, set on March 27, 2021, was 8-0 in a league meet. While he also competed in shot put, discus and javelin as a sophomore, pole vault emerged as his top event. His top height that year was 9-6 at the Olympic League Championships.

Skov reached new heights as a junior in 2022, he opened the season with a 9-0 mark at the Logan Relays, reached the 10-foot mark in the final regular league meet, and launched to first place at the league championships with a 12-3 height.

Vaulting over 12 feet was special, Skov said, because from that height vaulters can begin to feel a significant amount of time feeling weightless as they fall.

At last year’s district meet Skov cleared 11 feet, good for fourth place and a state 2A meet berth, and there he reached another personal best, clearing 13 feet and earning a third place medal — just 6 inches short of West Valley-Spokane senior Gavin Hoskinson and Burlington-Edison senior Talmage Palmer.

“He looked very different last year,” Moore said of Skov. “He’s much stronger and he’s faster.”

The Sequim youth has had lots of help reaching these heights, Moore said, thanks to local coaches, including Phil Milliman, and in particular the offseason and in-season work Skov gets from Pat Licari, the assistant coach at the University of Washington since 1997 and now an assistant at Pacific Lutheran University. Licari has coached three Olympians and two gold medalists at the IAAF World Championships, seven national champions and was the 2012 National Coach of the Year.

“I’ve known Pat for a long time; he’s a super-positive guy,” Moore said.

Plus, Moore said, Skov is soaking in all that knowledge, breaking down each vault attempt with Licari using video playback, as they fine-tune his form.

“[Mirek] wants to do well [and] he’s super coachable,” Moore said.

This season, while competing in various events (including the 100-meter sprint for the first time), Skov topped 12-6 in his first meet on March 21, and set a personal record in his second meet of 13-6 on March 27.

“I never thought I’d get 13-6,” Skov said.

Then came the Nike Union Athletics Club’s South Sound Classic in Shelton on April 15. Competing with athletes some much bigger schools, Skov cleared 14 feet to place second overall and set the top 2A boys mark in the state. (Note: Washougal junior Tanner Hardley tied the mark on April 25).

Ready to launch

Good pole vaulters, Skov said, have to have a bit of everything, from speed and strength to flexibility. Oh, and good genes doesn’t hurt either.

That’s why Mirek has high hopes for his brother Ari, who started vaulting as a sophomore last season and finished with a best mark of 9 feet, and this year has in seven meets cleared at least 10-6. Ari set a personal best this past weekend with a 12-2 effort as he and Mirek both placed in the top five at the 63rd Shelton Invitational on April 29.

“It’s good for him,” Mirek said, watching his brother work on vaulting techniques at a recent practice.

“He has the ideal build; with more muscle, [he] could be great.”

And the Skov brothers are hardly alone: Sequim High’s boys pole vault crew now boasts six athletes who’ve topped 9-6. It’s created a good problem for Moore, who along with other prep coaches at times wind up scrambling to find a correct length and tension of pole vault poles for their athletes week to week.

Mirek is already on his third pole this season, Moore said in mid-April. (Because poles can run as much as $650 without the shipping, Moore said Olympic League coaches and others in the region look out for each other by sharing the equipment.)

As for Skov, he said he knows he’s not at Division I-level pole vault marks just yet, estimating he needs to be in the 15-6, 16-foot range. The thought of those heights, it seems, gave Skov a moment of pause before heading back to the pole vault pit.

“That’s a goal, all right,” he said.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Sequim’s Mirek Skov adjusts his grip on a pole vault bar at a practice last week.

From left, Sequim’s Mirek and Ari Skov look over a video review of a vault with SHS coach Brad Moore at a practice last week.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Sequim pole vaulter Mirek Skov looks to clear a height at a practice last week. Skov has the top state mark (14-0) among 2A boys this season.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Sequim High junior Ari Skov, pictured here at a practice last week, has a personal best pole vault mark of 11-6 this season.