Leander TX Junior Earns US#3 Status; Rhode Islanders Vanessa Jones, Shamrock Thoun Win High School Weight Throws; Michael Pinckney, Elisia Lancaster Win Pro Weight Throws

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

John Nepolitan PHOTOS

INTERVIEWS

NEW YORK — Eric Rose made his case as the nation’s best high school pole vaulter on Friday night at The Armory, beating the top three ranked vaulters in the country to earn first place at the Millrose Games.

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The Leander TX junior cleared 17 feet, 2.75 inches (5.25 meters), beating Jaxon Jerabek (IMG Academy FL), Victor Olesen (Richmond VA) and Luke Beattie (Warwick NY), who were ranked US#1, 2 and 3, respectively, before the competition. Rose’s performance now puts him at US#3 and solidifies him as a true contender come championship season.

Rose said this was his first performance of the season using a seven-left approach (taking seven steps with his left leg, or 14 steps overall, in the run-up), and that switch made the difference for him. 

The next step? Switching to a longer pole. He used the same pole on Friday that he had been using last season with a six-left approach; with a bigger pole, he believes he’s ready for higher heights.

“Hopefully I can put up an 18 (foot vault) here soon,” Rose said. “But I’m just gonna let God’s plan happen.”

Rhode Islanders Vanessa Jones, Shamrock Thoun Win High School Weight Throws

Vanessa Jones (Toll Gate RI) won a tightly contested girls weight throw on Friday, throwing 57-1 to earn US#2 status.

Heading into the final round, three girls had thrown over 55 feet and Jones was barely leading with a 55-10.25 mark, but Taylor McGinness (Smithfield RI) and Aubrey Pelletier (IMG Academy FL) couldn’t come through on their final attempts, and by the time Jones stepped into the ring for her last attempt, she had already earned the win.

That didn’t stop her from uncorking a big one, though. Her 57-1 mark is a season’s best and puts her within a foot of the national lead of 57-9.75 by Ainsley Cuthbertson (Lexington MA).

Last year, Jones took second in this event; she was extra motivated this year to come out with a win. She would have liked a 60-foot throw, she said, but she was happy to earn her first Millrose title and prove to herself yet again that she could compete against the nation’s best.

In the boys weight throw, Shamrock Thoun (Woonsocket RI) continued his undefeated season in the event, throwing 79-4.75 to beat IMG Academy’s Henry Sherman by nearly three feet.

Thoun demonstrated remarkable consistency in his series, only scratching once and throwing over 79 feet three times. His season’s best of 80-9.25 puts him at US#2 behind fellow Rhode Islander Ryan Evans (East Greenwich), who finished fourth in Friday’s competition with a throw of 74-3.75. 

After Thoun’s last throw was measured, the crowd heard “81-10” over the loudspeaker, which would have put him within three quarters of an inch of Evans for the national lead, but it was later displayed as the correct mark of 79-4.75.

Regardless, Thoun looks like a favorite to defend both of his national titles from last year — he won the weight throw at Nike Indoor Nationals and New Balance Nationals Indoor on back-to-back days in 2025.

Michael Pinckney, Elisia Lancaster Win Pro Weight Throws

Michael Pinckney won the men’s weight throw, tossing a 21.10-meter heave (69-2.75) on his second throw, which was never beaten.

The UCLA senior, who sits at ninth in the NCAA with a season’s best of 22.33 meters (73-3.25), said he came in with the goal of beating that mark, which is also his personal best. Despite not making that happen — thanks in part to four consecutive scratches to end his field series — he recognized the value of a win at a meet like the Millrose Games.

Pinckney attended the High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture in Queens — less than 20 miles from The Armory — and in 2022, he took second in the boys high school weight throw at Millrose. Friday’s performance certainly wasn’t his first win at the historic venue, but it was a meaningful one.

“It means a lot,” Pinckney said. “The Millrose Games have been going on for over 100 years… it’s amazing to be able to come here all the way from UCLA and compete with former teammates, people that I used to know that are still throwing.”

Evangelos Fradelakis and RJ Decker came close to beating Pinckney in the later rounds, each getting over 20 meters, but they topped out at 20.73 meters (68-0.25) and 20.05 meters (65-9.50), respectively.

Pinckney will be competing at Arkansas each of the next two weekends, where he’ll aim to earn an NCAA-qualifying mark. 

“I’ve still got more to go,” Pinckney said. “So, we’ll go back to the drawing board and get back to work.”

Shore AC’s Elisia Lancaster dominated the women’s weight throw, winning for the second straight year with a 21.56-meter throw (70-9), over two and a half meters farther than anyone else. She didn’t quite eclipse her season’s best of 21.93 meters, but she was certainly still pleased with her performance.

“There’s always things that we can improve on and do better with,” Lancaster said. “But, you know what, I went out there and executed. I did my best that I could do. I can’t be mad at that.”

Lancaster has finished in the top ten in the weight throw at the USATF Championships in each of the last three years. She said she’s not sure if she’ll compete again this year, but if she does, she knows that qualifying for worlds will come down to staying fresh. She works full-time as a social worker at a school, and her 9-5 days can often turn into 9-9 days or longer, so she knows she needs to be intentional with how much stress she’s taking on.

“I feel like I train hard and I work hard,” Lancaster said. “I also work full-time, so (the key is) just taking care of my body and making sure I’m in the best position I can be in to execute and do what I do great.”