Almost before the interview had even started, KU junior Mason Meinershagen’s head snapped and her eyes went directly toward pole vault teammate Madi Snody with that look that asks, ‘What’s happening?’
Her reaction followed a question about the KU women pole vaulters living a little in the shadows of the men’s team.
Hitting a couple of school records, hoisting individual Big 12 and national championship trophies and clearing the magical and seldom-reached 19-foot mark the way a few members of the current KU men’s team have recently has a way of stealing headlines.
But for the next 20 or so minutes, Meinershagen and Snody explained clearly, and beyond question, why the KU women have been right there with the guys, both in recent years and historically speaking at the tradition-rich track and field school.
Most of the time, that has meant literally.
See, while some schools have a clear divide between the training that goes into what the men do and the women do in certain events, with KU pole vault it’s one big happy team, just the way vertical jumps coach Tom Hays likes it.
“We’re all just here supporting each other,” Meinershagen told R1S1 Sports. “And Coach Hays is our No. 1 supporter. When he talks to us, he talks to the whole group. We’re all KU pole vault.”
That means at most practices Meinershagen and Snody — the only two women pole vaulters on KU’s outdoor roster this season — have the opportunity to train right alongside their male teammates.
“I think personally, for me, it’s great getting to train with guys,” Meinershagen, the KU school record holder on the women’s side a couple of times over, told R1S1 Sports last week. “Guys do push you to a different level that you might not be able to get with a female partner. I’ll sometimes do certain things in our warm-up with the guys, and, going on travel trips with them, they’re all my best friends and our whole group is really close.”
Added Snody: “We train the exact same, we lift the exact same, exact same strategy; everything is the exact same.”
That includes the run of success and consistency with which it has come.
As the older of the two KU women, Meinhershagen’s performances have always been a bit of a carrot for Snody to chase. And the sophomore from small-town Texas has absolutely loved that.
“I’ve always looked up to Mason,” Snody told R1S1 Sports. “My freshman year, watching her break the school record, it just seemed unattainable and it was so cool just to be able to watch that and gave me goals to set.”
She’s not quite there yet. Meinershagen holds both the indoor (4.56 meters) and outdoor (4.57 meters) school records, but Snody has pushed her PR to 4.40 and, at the recent Big 12 outdoor meet, she actually finished ahead of her teammate, taking third place to Meinershagen’s fifth.
“There’s so much history in KU track and field, and I recognize every time I put the uniform on that it’s bigger than me. You gotta realize that it’s an honor putting that on.”
— KU junior pole vaulter and high jumper Mason Meinershagen
The immediate goal for both of them is to crack the Top 12 at the NCAA West Regional this week in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which would earn them a spot at nationals in June.
The women's pole vault event is slated for 7 p.m. central on Thursday night.
As both women continue to strive for new bars, they acknowledged that watching the KU men achieve insane results of late has added motivation to their own journeys. It’s part of Hays’ famed coaching method of making sure his athletes don’t put themselves in a box and always strive for bigger, better, higher.
“It just makes you think that it’s possible because now they’ve achieved it,” Meinershagen said of the national feats and top bars the KU men like Anthony Meacham and Ashton and Bryce Barkdull have cleared. “It was like untouched territory, but now we’ve actually seen it be done.”
Added Snody: “Just seeing a national champion and Anthony being the Big 12 athlete of the week for so many weeks, it just gives you something to push to and look forward to. It makes you want to have that success so much more when you literally see it happening right in front of you.”
As much as the KU women appreciate what the KU men have done and continue to do, both Meinershagen and Snody throw most of their praise toward Hays for bringing them to this point in their careers.
He coached and taught and motivated them to reach new heights. And his appreciation for all of KU’s track and field tradition — he, himself, was a former KU pole vaulter — has inspired them to appreciate even the smallest parts of the process.
“There’s so much history in KU track and field, and I recognize every time I put the uniform on that it’s bigger than me,” Meinershagen said. “You gotta realize that it’s an honor putting that on.”
When she does, she says she’s representing KU, those who came before her, Hays, head coach Stanley Redwine and all of the teammates who now train with her.
Summed up more succinctly, Snody said simply, “You’re representing a legacy.”
Meinershagen said Hays’ magic comes down to one simple thing.
“I think it’s the way he talks to us,” she said. “He treats us not just like his athletes but also as people, too. And he wants the best for us.”
While Meinershagen has gotten used to that over her three years, Snody just really got comfortable with it this year. And that, she said, may be a big part of the reason she has enjoyed a breakout season.
See, after moving from gymnastics to pole vault in 7th grade — and absolutely loving it immediately — Snody had the same club coach for the next six years of her life.
She had ups and downs with injuries throughout high school and wasn’t really even sure what she was going to do in college until she visited Kansas.
“It was a one-day visit to KU and, that night, I went to my parents’ hotel room and was like, “I’m going to school here,’” Snody recalled. “And they were like, ‘Yeah, you are.’”
And then things got even harder.
“My body really went through it freshman year,” she said.
But she battled, kept fighting, kept striving to reach the KU standard and kept trusting Hays. In part because she knew she needed to. And in part because of what others shared with her long before she ever joined his team.
“Everybody told me, ‘You’re stupid if you don’t go to Kansas. That’ll be the biggest mistake of your life if you don’t go there,’” she said. “I didn’t understand what they were saying until I got here.”
She continued: “The biggest difference this year is just trusting coach Hays. It was hard going 13 hours away from home and seeing this new coach that I’m just supposed to trust immediately. But I think a big part of the breakthrough is just doing what Coach Hays intended. It’s all him, really.
“I don’t think we’d be having the individual success that we’ve had without so much one-on-one time with Coach Hays, because it really makes a difference.”
So, now, with the season down to the final two meets, the goal is simple for both KU women.
Meinershagen has been to nationals before, but she said you always want to go back. Snody is still looking for her first trip.
Between them, the two have delivered some of the best vaults in the country this season, so their confidence is high heading into Fayetteville.
But they’re not losing sight of the big picture.
“Qualify for nationals, go podium, try to win,” Meinershagen said with a big smile.
Can they do it?
“I mean, it’s just a matter of having a good day,” she added. “You’re always one good day away.”
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