Two-time Nevada high school state champion at Coronado and former Fresno Pacific standout has thrived this summer during the pandemic, giving him the stage to compete at the Vaulter Club Vaulter Magazine nationals and earning him a place to showcase his talents next year in the Southeastern Conference

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

He’s made a lot of great jumps in his life, especially lately, but the most important leap for Keaton Daniel will come this fall.

It is when the former Fresno Pacific pole vaulting standout makes the move from the NCAA Division 2 to Division 1, when he joins the track and field team as a true sophomore at the University of Kentucky.

“If it goes well,” said Daniel’s friend, mentor, and former Texas A&M star Audie Wyatt, “it could send him on another path in life.”

Daniel takes another step in that journey Saturday, when he competes in the elite men’s section at the Vaulter Club Vaulter Magazine National Championships event at the Big Red Barn facility in Sun City, Calif.

It will be his second competition at the new venue, following a fourth-place finish June 27 with a clearance of 18-feet, 1-inch (5.51m), trailing American professionals Nate Richartz, Wyatt and Tray Oates at the Vaulter Club Vaulter Magazine Stars and Stripes meet.

Daniel also won the pole vault at the Desert Dream Last Hurrah Invitational on June 12 at Poston Butte High in San Tan Valley, Ariz.

A two-time Nevada high school state champion at Coronado High in Henderson, Daniel has risen steadily since his junior season. Yes, he had the “a-ha” moment Jan. 18 at the UCS Spirit National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev., but his improvement has shown to be consistent since 2018.

That’s one reason he’s comfortable going from Fresno Pacific to the Southeastern Conference. After careful consideration, he said, he made the decision in mid-May.

“I definitely wasn’t sure of anything,” Daniel said. “Just kind of took a leap of faith.”

Perhaps it’s not as much of a leap as he states.

Daniel’s pole vault journey has been of a high profile since capturing state titles his junior and senior years. He won all but one meet as a junior – a second-place finish at the Arcadia Invitational – and as a senior, he vaulted a personal best of 16-5 (5.00m) in the Richard Lewis Invitational.

He followed the end of his senior season in 2019 by first winning the North American Pole Vault Championships in Clovis with a 16-foot clearance (4.87m) and then winning the USATF National Junior Olympics Championships in Sacramento with a 15-11 effort (4.85m).

Daniel first met Wyatt in high school in a meet at Northern Arizona University. Wyatt was a standout at Texas A&M at the time.

“He was still in high school and was looking for a place to go,” Wyatt said. “I noticed he was a pretty good jumper, so I was like, ‘Hey, man, you should look into going to A&M.’”

Instead, Daniel opted to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond and head to Fresno.

He made a splash in his first meet as a collegiate athlete, clearing 18-0.50 (5.50m) to win the men’s elite college competition at the Pole Vault Summit. The mark was 18 inches above his previous lifetime best and put him on the elite radar.

“After I cleared 5.50m at Summit, that was when I was kind of like, ‘You know, I could go for bigger things,’” Daniel said.

The mark was a top-five performance in NCAA Division 2 indoor history.

“I remembered seeing that and I was like, ‘Holy crap, I knew he could jump higher,’” Wyatt said. “When it happened, I congratulated him and talked to him a little bit. He started to come down to AZPVA (Arizona Pole Vaulting Academy).”

Given a new trajectory, Daniel set a PacWest Conference record by vaulting 17-2.75 (5.25m) at the hometown Sunbird Invitational before hitting 17-7.25 (5.37m) two weeks later at the Kim Duyst Invitational up the freeway in Turlock.

Then, of course, came the same hurdle that stopped everyone else in college track and field, COVID-19, which ended the season in mid-March. The NCAA Championships that Daniel qualified for as a true freshman were cancelled.

So in the middle of a global pandemic, Deaton chartered a new course with some help from Wyatt as the two reconnected at AZPVA.

Wyatt was out of college, but his former Texas A&M vaulting coach, Kris Grimes, had joined the staff at Kentucky in 2018.

Wyatt saw Grimes and Daniel as a perfect fit. In mid-May, Daniel made the decision to go to Kentucky, and Grimes, thanks in part to Wyatt’s recommendation.

“Coach Grimes was definitely a big-time mentor to me,” Wyatt said. “I was with him for three years. He just helped me progress so much physically and mentally. I did well with him. I knew that once (Keaton) was thinking about Kentucky, in my head, I knew that was the place to go.”

Daniel is set up with an apartment there and said the school is ready to go with classes this fall. And he’s excited.

“There’s a whole new facility, whole new coaching staff and there’s so many resources laid in front of me now,” Daniel said. “It’s really nice.”

Wyatt credits two reasons for Daniel’s development.

“I think it is just who he is in his heart,” Wyatt said. “It’s his passion; it’s his drive.”

Second, Wyatt said, credit goes to the Fresno Pacific staff for working with Daniel on strength training.

“He definitely grew a lot and gained a lot of muscle,” Wyatt said.

In the meantime in a pandemic-slowed world, Daniel keeps skills sharp by vaulting in meets like those in Sun City and in the Desert Dream meet in Arizona.

And he’ll be part of an elite field Saturday that is scheduled to have seven athletes who boast 18-foot clearances during their careers, including Baylor standout KC Lightfoot, along with American professionals Cole Walsh, Scott Marshall, as well as Oates, Richartz and Wyatt.

Kortney Ross, another American professional, is expected to headline the elite women’s section Saturday, with the high school nationals competitions scheduled for Friday.

Taylor Starkey, a Casteel High graduate and Kansas signee who also trains with AZPVA, leads the girls section, and Woodsboro TX rising junior Anthony Meacham will battle La Costa Canyon CA rising senior Garrett Brown in the boys section.

“Definitely just having the opportunity to vault,” said Daniel, when asked about this summer’s schedule.

“There’s not many places with COVID and everything shutting down. Just (good) to go out and have a nice runway and everybody cheering you on.”

Not surprisingly, he has high hopes.

“I definitely want to hit the Olympic standard (19-1/5.81m),” Daniel said.

And had somebody told him he would wind up at Kentucky back in high school?

“I would have told them, ‘You’re pulling my foot. Get out of here,’” he said. “I wouldn’t have believed them for sure.”