BLOOMINGTON — Rochelle sophomore Andrew Nuyen has been practicing his pole vaulting for an average of four to five hours a week since his freshman season with the Hub track and field team concluded this past year. In addition to practicing with the RISE Pole Vault club in Joliet, Nuyen has been practicing at home, where he has a $1,000 pole vault pit in his yard.

Nuyen’s dedication has led to significant improvements in his clearances from last season, where his indoor personal record was 7 feet 6 ½ inches and his outdoor personal record was 8 feet 11 ¾ inches. The talented sophomore has taken his skills to new heights, setting multiple RTHS fresh-soph school records in just the first few meets of the 2024 indoor campaign.

Nuyen concluded his stellar indoor season at the 2024 Illinois Top Times Indoor State Championships at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, where he set a new fresh-soph school record and finished first in Class 2A with a clearance of 14 feet 11 ¼ inches. Nuyen is the first male student-athlete from RTHS to win an indoor state championship since Joe Torres in 2011. Nuyen is just inches away from the varsity school record of 15 feet set by John Place in 1983.

“It was scary at first, but I calmed myself down and I tried to have fun,” Nuyen said. “There was good competition, but I was able to calm down and relax. It was cool to make history and it’s something that I still can’t wrap my head around. My coaches at my other training facility in Joliet have helped me a lot. I wanted to vault more in the offseason and that’s helped me.”

Nuyen was one of two athletes to clear 14 feet 11 ¼ inches at the indoor state meet. The other was Sycamore’s Braedon Shaner, who Nuyen edged out for the state title based on the tiebreaker criteria. Nuyen and Shaner went head-to-head at Sycamore’s Gary Egler Invitational earlier this season, where Shaner won with a height of 14 feet 7 ¼ inches and Nuyen took second at 14 feet. With the indoor season now over, Nuyen said his goals for the outdoor season include clearing 16 feet, which would be a new RTHS school record by a full foot.

“I saw my friends doing the pole vault when I was a freshman and I thought it would be fun,” Nuyen said. “Maturity has helped me a lot, but most of my improvements have come from my coaches. It’s fun to feel the exhilaration of being up in the air… I’ve been practicing for about four-and-a-half hours a week, plus the time I spend at the gym. I’ve exceeded my expectations.”