Montrose pole vaulter carries on school’s tradition

Launching herself high into the sky Elya Spolar is a Meteor aiming to reach new heights.

Individually, she is a top pole vaulter in the Lackawanna Track Conference and District 2. To get back to Shippensburg University and the PIAA Class AA Championship Meet, the Montrose track and field standout is working to get better.

Montrose has a celebrated history in pole vaulting. Joe LaBarbera, the current District 2 Class AA record holder, captured a silver medal at the state meet by clearing 14-feet, 6-inches in 2004. Nick Staats followed, and became the top vaulter in the LTC.

For Spolar, a National Honor Society student who devotes a lot of her free time to the school and is the president of the student council, accepting challenges is just part of her personality.

A member of the field hockey team, she has always had good strength and speed. Montrose track coach Eric Powers, noticing her abilities, approached her about trying the pole vault.

She gladly accepted.

“In ninth grade, I just decided to give it a try,” she said. “I’m always looking for something different to do. Nick Staats really got me into pole vaulting and I work hard at it to get better.”

At the District 2 championship meet last spring, Spolar was busy battling against the best pole vaulter in the history of District 2, Susquehanna’s Amber Gaffey.

As competitors, Spolar and Gaffey struck a friendship. They worked out together and traveled to Vertical Assault, a training haven in Allentown for aspiring vaulters.

Clearing 8-0, Spolar finished second. But she too qualified for the state meet, where she bettered that effort with an 8-6.

With Gaffey graduated, Spolar has her sights set on district gold.

“This year, I started going to Vertical Assault during field hockey season,” Spolar said. “I really need to focus. I have to get it into my head that it is going to happen for me and I need to keep working.”


Having posted two individual wins, Spolar is taking her time getting into a groove. But she knows what she has to do in the coming weeks.

“The hardest part for me is the mental part,” Spolar said. “It’s not being in the air that gets to me, it’s the mental part.”

And if she keeps working, the sky will be the limit.