Chico State's Zehr Jeuech Blanco vaulted on to the NCAA provisional qualifying list and into the program's all-time top-10 list in winning the John Lipsey pole vault at Saturday's Chico State Distance Carnival and Twilight Invitational at University Stadium. The Wildcat of the Week's efforts had the home fans buzzing.
The junior from Watsonville (Aptos High School) entered the meet with a personal record of 15-feet-3 and a season-best of 15-feet-1. He blew both out of the water Sunday, improving his personal record by better than a foot.
Blanco opened the meet with a season-best clearance of 4.53 meters on his first attempt and then cleared a career-best 4.68 meters on his first try. Two jumps in and Blanco was in uncharted territoy. He got up and over the next bar, at 4.83 meters high, on his third and final attempt, which netted Blanco his first NCAA provisional mark. With his clearance of 4.98 meters on his third try, he secured his second collegiate win, and first since 2017.
Blanco then attempted to break Frank Lines' 36-year-old Chico State record by raising the bar to 16-feet-8 (5.08 meters), which would almost certainly be good enough to earn a spot at the NCAA Championships. The crowd was enraptured and Blanco took three solid cracks at it, but just missed. Still, Blanco's mark is the best recorded by a Wildcat since 2008, ranks 11th in the nation this season, and seventh all-time at Chico State.
Blanco and the Wildcats will be back in action next weekend at the UC Davis Woody Wilson Classic, site of his first collegiate victory as a freshman in 2017.
