‘I am 100 percent rooting for him’: Brayden Freitag, a pole vaulter at Eastern Washington, has chance to beat father’s collegiate personal best at Big Sky championships

A record-setting pole vaulter during his time at Eastern Washington, Todd Freitag watched his son develop an interest in cross country – and almost no interest in pole vaulting.

But when Brayden Freitag busted his dirt bike during the summer after eighth grade, his father, who was also the high school vault coach, saw an opportunity.

“I bribed him,” Todd Freitag said. “I’ll get you this bike if you commit to vaulting your freshman year.”

Eight years later, Brayden Freitag is just inches from surpassing his father’s outdoor best at Eastern, a feat he will attempt to accomplish Saturday in Greeley, Colorado, during the Big Sky Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which begin Wednesday.

“Two centimeters is the difference right now,” Brayden Freitag, a junior, said on Friday after practice in Cheney. “Two centimeters is pretty small.”

Brayden has exceeded his dad’s outdoor mark in practice, but this week presents his next chance to officially beat it: Todd Freitag cleared 5.05 meters (16 feet, 6¾ inches) outside in 1988; Brayden’s top mark is 5.03 (16-6).

In late February at the Big Sky Indoor championships in Moscow, Idaho, the younger Freitag bested his father’s indoor personal record with a vault of 5.05 meters. That’s the fourth-best mark at Eastern, two spots ahead of Todd Freitag’s 5.00 meters (16-4¾) in 1989 but still three spots behind Brayden’s teammate and roommate Zach Klobutcher, who set the program record in January with a vault of 5.21 meters (17-1).

Klobutcher is second on Eastern’s outdoor record list with a vault of 5.17 meters (16-11½), trailing Larry Still’s record of 5.35 (17-6½), set in 2019.

Unlike the indoor, of course, outdoor competition factors in something uncontrollable – the weather. Forecasts call for temperatures in the 60s with a wind from the north between 10 and 20 miles per hour. That’s not ideal for a vaulter.

But weather is something Freitag tries to tune out.

“We’re all in the same conditions,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.”

The Eagles are sending a number of title contenders to Greeley, led on the men’s side by Klobutcher as well as triple jumper Bobby Say, who won the event at the Big Sky indoors meet.

On the women’s side, Hally Ruff and Savannah Schultz rank No. 1 and 2, respectively, in the Big Sky’s pole vault rankings. Schultz won the indoor event in Moscow while Ruff finished third.

Juniors Klobutcher and Freitag finished 1-2 in Moscow, and after finishing third in the Big Sky outdoors last year in Pocatello, Idaho, Freitag is hoping for a strong finish to the spring.

“Earlier (last) season I was struggling, and toward the end I started to figure things out,” Freitag said. “Last year it wasn’t the height that I wanted, but some things were clicking that allowed me to roll into this year.”

After he began pole vaulting at Kamiakin High School, Freitag excelled.

As a junior, he finished ninth in the State 3A meet, and a year later, with a vault of 15-9, he won the state title – a distinction his father had earned in 1984 at Columbia River High School in Vancouver with a height of 14-6 .

“It’s just the biggest mental push ever … every vault is a little scary,” Brayden said. “But once you plant the pole, and once you’re rocking back and you’re just doing the vault, it’s just effortless. When you do it right, it’s the easiest thing you’ve ever done.”

Todd Freitag coached his son in the vault all four years at Kamiakin. He had been the head track and field coach at a high school in Nevada and at Kennewick High. He still teaches at Kamiakin but relinquished his coaching duties last year. Now he gets to watch Brayden compete, as he will in Greeley.

“It’s crazy, because he’s been jumping outdoors, probably the best he’s jumped,” Todd Freitag said. “He just hasn’t jumped as high yet.

“(He is) right there. It’s just a matter of putting it together. “Hopefully, this weekend it’ll be the meet where he puts things together.”

Family bragging rights are on the line some, they both said, but there are elements that factor into their personal records that are relative and contextual. When Todd set what was then a school outdoor vault record in 1988, he didn’t have a dedicated vault coach. At EWU, Brayden has trained under Eric Allison, who has during his 21 years with the program coached five vaulters who have exceeded Todd’s outdoor mark.

There’s something about bragging to his father that feels weird to Brayden. Plus, his dad’s career personal record is 17-4 and a little “metric change.”

“I’ve got some serious work to do for that one,” Brayden said.

But he will give it his best this week. If son passes father, that’s fine with the father.

“It’s funny, because sometimes people say, ‘Are you going to be sad if he breaks your record?’ ” Todd said. “No. I am 100% rooting for him.”