Pint-sized pole vaulter breaks mold

Standing only 5 feet 4 and weighing 110 pounds, tiny Tory Worthen of Council Rock-South is anything but the average-looking pole vaulter.

“If you look at her in terms of the prototypical pole vaulter, the more elite ones are 5-9 with broad shoulders and are huge,” Golden Hawks coach Deric Lynch said. “She's kind of diminutive.”

However, while Worthen certainly is small in stature, she looms very large over the rest of the area competition in the pole vault heading into the weekend's District One championships at Coatesville.

At the Suburban One League Continental Conference Girls Track & Field Championships in Horsham last weekend, she won the event with a 12-7 vault, ahead of Amber Mahan of CB West (9-6) and Hatboro-Horsham's Christina Hreso (9-0). During the Penn Relays last month, Worthen (12-5) was second behind Easton's Abigail Schaffer, who needed a record-breaking 13-03/4 to best her.

As a sophomore last year, Worthen's 12-0 was good for second in the state championships, following another silver-winning District One performance, where Worthen cleared 11-6.

“Tory is close to going from very, very good to beyond elite and pushing that mark,” Lynch said. “She's an underclassman, which makes it all the more special.”

Worthen trains with the prestigious Vertical Assault club team from Bath, Pa., to hone her vaulting skills. At CR-South, she's under the tutelage of her father, Ken Worthen, who joined Lynch's staff four years ago when Lynch became the coach of the Golden Hawks. Ken Worthen handles the hurdling, jumping and vaulting coaching duties for the team.

“She and her dad have a special relationship,” Lynch said. “It's neat. A lot of times, parents that try to be coaches don't work well with their kids. But at meets he's coach, at home he's dad. He has it balanced being father and coach. The best thing for her is that they have that balance.”

To overcome her size, Worthen uses a swiftness running down the track along with a improving vaulting technique combined with a desire to be the best and a confidence in her abilities.

“She has deceptive speed down the runway,” Lynch said. “She's very hard-working. But effort equals results. Her technique is unbelievable. She's really progressed.

“The biggest thing now is her confidence. She believes. It's easy to tell an athlete, "You're going to be good. You're going to be good.' But now she believes it.”

During the next two weeks she'll need all her hard work, skills and confidence to have a chance for gold in both the district and state meets, but Lynch thinks Worthen is more than ready for the next step in her vaulting career.

“In her mind 12-6 is doable. Next is 12-91/2, which is the junior Olympic standard. But she's pushing for that 13. She has some big jumps in her. I'm looking forward to her performing the next two weeks.

“It's a scary thing going 13 feet when she's just 110 pounds. I give her a lot of credit. She's one of those really special girls. When it's time to compete, certain athletes have that switch, and she can turn it on. She's a big-time performer.”