From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Rebecca Hoover became the first South Jersey girl to win an Easterns pole vault title in 20 years Tuesday night.

Hoover, a junior at Haddonfield, cleared 11-6 on her 1st attempt at the 88th annual Easterns at the Armory and has now won the vault at eight consecutive meets going back to a a 4th place at a Philly Jumps Club meet in Conshohocken in December.

Along the way, she’s picked up wins at the state relays (with teammate Mia Bompensa), the Ocean Breeze Invitational, the South Jersey Group 2 sectionals, the state Group 2 meet with a PR-tying 12-0 and now Easterns.

Hoover is still a newcomer to the pole vault. She didn’t compete indoors last year, didn’t clear 10 feet until outdoor sectionals last spring and had a PR of 10-6 from a 3rd-place finish at states and again at Meet of Champions.

But she opened this winter at 11-6 and has cleared 11-3 or better in all 12 meets she’s contested, including two 12-foot clearances – both at the Bubble.

At Easterns, she opened at 10-6 and cleared on her 1st attempt, then made 11-0 on her 2nd before a 1st-attempt clearance at 11-6.

The only other South Jersey girls pole vault winner in Easterns history is O’Reilly, the former national indoor record holder with a 13-5 at the 2004 Varsity Classic at the Armory. She won the 2002 meet at 11-6 and in 2004 at 12-0. The vault was added to the Easterns schedule in 2001.

Previous Haddonfield winners at Eastern were Olympian Erin Donohue in the mile in 2001 [4:54.73], Emily Carson in the 55 in 2013 [7.09] and Briana Gess in the mile in 2015 [4:59.25]. Haddonfield’s 4-by-8 won in 2017 [9:31.92], most likely with Kaitlyn Bonnet, Casey Clarke, Lilly Minor and Gess … but possibly Lilly Sirover or Alexa Gostovich in there somewhere (but the names are literally not listed in any results or stories).

Hoover is one of three girls – all juniors – who share the No. 1 seed for the Meet of Champions on March 3 at Ocean Breeze with 12-0 clearances at states. Moorestown’s Hannah Byrd-Leitner won Group 3, Hoover won Group 2 and Shreya Sathiyan was 2nd in Group 3.

Byrd-Leitner cleared 12-6 in December, matching the No. 9 mark in state history and No. 3 in South Jersey history behind O’Reilly and Delsea’s Ashley Preston [12-7 in 2018], a 4-time Big East champ at Villanova.