Harold Winder Memorial Meet

 This past weekend there was a pole vault meet in Joliet Illinois at RISE pole vault where I used to pay for lessons. I would have totally signed up to jump in it but that would have been against the NCAA rules since I'm competing in college. So I went and I watched my old high school teammates compete in it. I saw my friend Jordan, who is going to be a senior, my friend Henry, who will be a sophomore, and a new face to the team, Sebastian, who is a freshman.

The reason the meet is called the Harold Winder Memorial Meet is because Harold Winder is the owner and founder of RISE's grandfather. He introduced pole vault into the Winder family by building a make-shift pole vault pit in his backyard for his son to practice in. Since then pole vault has gone through the generations of the family and been such a big thing to where Jake, who is Harold's grandson, was able to create a company out of it. Unfortunately Harold Winder passed away during COVID so he did not get a proper memorial, so Jake dedicated an annual meet in his memory.

Me and Jordan are close friends so I was really excited to see him jump, and he destroyed his personal record at the meet. He PR'd by 9 inches which puts his best at 14 feet and 9 inches. This is super impressive. If it were an official high school meet he would've been #3 on the school record board and this is at the start of his senior season. I'm really excited to see how far he is going to take it. I really hope he continues to compete in college. Jordan has set a large distance between my PR and his, so I am excited to catch up to him. I live for this friendly competition.