PITSBURG – Franklin Monroe’s Selene Weaver with be taking her pole vaulting skills to the next level for the 2020-2021 season with Indiana State University after signing with the NCAA Division-I Sycamores’ track and field program located in Terre Haute, IN.
“If you would have told me four years ago that I would be going Division-I, I probably would have laughed at you,” Weaver said. “It’s all just the people that have helped me get here and my own hard work. It will be so amazing to contribute to a team that is Division-I and to be a part of that.”
“This is our first athlete that we’ve had since I have been here to go D-I and it’s just a big testament of all the hard work she’s put in,” said FM head track and field coach Rick Ingold. “Selene had a lot of drive the whole time she has been part of our program. I could not be more proud of what she’s done over her almost six years now.”
The Franklin Monroe senior, the daughter of Joseph and Trisha Weaver plans to pursue a double major including Exercise Science and Applied Medicine at ISU.
“I will use that to hopefully get into PA school and then become a physician assistant in the sports medicine on the orthopedic side of things,” Weaver said.
Weaver placed sixth with a vault of 11’0” her sophomore season at the OHSAA D-III state finals and a jump of 12’2” was good for a third place finish her junior season at state. The FM senior will compete one final season for the Lady Jets track and field program in the spring of 2020.
“We obviously have big expectations this year coming up,” said Ingold. “Thankfully we have a great core system with the Ultimate Air Crew with Steve (Shellhaas) and Micah (Coblentz) and all the rest of those guys. I think her best days are ahead of her.”
“For this season my most important goal is to just have a good attitude and radiate good energy,” Weaver stated.
Pole vaulting originally was not a priority in Weaver’s track and field aspirations.
“It was such an amazing accomplishment in the fact that I picked up my pole four years ago,” Weaver noted. “This is totally not what I had in mind. It was just something that I was going to do and then everything just kind of fell in place and to be going to a Division-I school – it is just amazing.”
“She loves the pole vault and I get that, but she is so talented in so many events,” said Coach Ingold. “I think she could have a great future in being a multi-athlete but they are pretty committed to having her pole vaulting and that’s a great deal for her too.”
Coach Ingold believes the signing of Weaver to a D-I school can only have a positive impact on Franklin Monroe as well as the Lady Jets track and field program.
“It gives a lot of credibility to our program and it certainly gives some motivation to some of those younger athletes to see somebody like Selene who has been part of our program for six years at this point,” stated Ingold. “Selene has had so much success and is going to move on and get some of her college paid for and have the opportunity to compete at the NCAA D-I level. It gives them a little bit of motivation too.”
“I would like to thank most importantly my mom because she is the one that got certified to become a coach and drive my poles to all my meets,” said Weaver. “She came to every single meet. Without her I wouldn’t be a pole vaulter at all yet along going D-I.”
“I also want to thank my dad and my grandparents all for coming to my meets in the pouring rain season, it’s cold and windy. I also want to thank my coach, Rick Ingold –Steve Shellhaas and Micah Coblentz and Mark Booso. Steve opens up his home where we practice, that is where Ultimate Air is and that means so much to me. At the state meet, Micah Coblentz brought extra poles and helped coach me and I think that’s amazing.”
I want to thank my coaches from Indiana State; Jeff Martin (pole vault coach) and Angela Martin (Head Coach) both for giving me the opportunity,” Weaver said of the husband and wife duo. “I want to thank them for giving me the opportunity to continue my athletic and academic careers.”
