School: Archbishop Molloy
Sport: Pole vault
Year: Senior
Hometown: Bellerose
For Archbishop Molloy’s Ian Cassidy, practice makes perfect. The senior from Bellerose pole-vaulted 15 feet, 6 inches in practice — four times in a row….
Name: Ian Cassidy
School: Archbishop Molloy
Sport: Pole vault
Year: Senior
Hometown: Bellerose
For Archbishop Molloy’s Ian Cassidy, practice makes perfect. The senior from Bellerose pole-vaulted 15 feet, 6 inches in practice — four times in a row. When it came to competition, Cassidy needed an upshot of just 14 feet, 6 inches to earn a victory at the 77th CHSAA Outdoor Intersectional City Championships at Mount St. Michael Academy on Saturday, easily beating second-place Farell by 6 inches.
Cassidy, ranked second in the state in the pole vault, holds the indoor state record with a vault of 15 feet, 9 1/4 inches, which he did at the Hispanic Games in January. The vault broke the previous indoor record held by Ryan Dall, an assistant track coach at Duke University, where Cassidy is headed in the fall.
In junior high, Cassidy competed as a state-level gymnast, and this background provides him with the speed, power and flexibility to excel in the pole vault.
“It helps with technique and strength,” he said following his win on Saturday. “It’s getting to the point where I need more poles because the poles I have now are getting too soft.”
Said his coach, Jerry Dunne of Molloy: “He’s overpowering his poles because of his speed and strength. The pole he has now is designed for his weight, but he’s too strong for it.”
He was too strong for his competitors on Saturday, as well.
Honor Roll:
Martin Van Buren’s Christi Langhorn, a pitcher, went 3-for-3 with two home runs, six RBIs and four strike-outs in a 24-0 win over Springfield Gardens Friday … Steven Merslich struck out six and gave up just one earned run for Francis Lewis in a 5-1 complete-game win against Richmond Hill … Tom Forster, a discus thrower from St. Francis Prep, placed fifth at the CHSAA Outdoor Intersectional City Championships Saturday with a throw of 131 feet, 2 inches … Flushing’s Gabriel Hernandez went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and a home run in a win against John Bowne.
