Mount St. Joseph’s Veronica Vacca aims to close her high school career with another state pole vault title

Entering her final year of high school track and field, Veronica Vacca made it a goal to clear 15 feet in the pole vault, a milestone that most athletes don’t reach until college.

Now ranked among the nation’s best high schoolers, the Mount St. Joseph Academy senior set a personal record of 14 feet, 3 inches at the state indoor meet last season and has been working to surpass it. However, Vacca, who has mirrored numbers of college athletes for the last three years, has dealt with some setbacks.

“That’s something that we’re kind of hoping to accomplish more toward the end of outdoor and through the summer now,” Vacca said of clearing 15 feet. “It’s been a pretty crazy year. That was pretty much our main goal. Other than that, [it] was just to stay healthy and to not be out for a month or two because of an injury. There have been a couple weeks where it’s been tough, especially for the indoor national season. I got the flu, and then I injured my Achilles.”

But that didn’t hold Vacca back from having successful indoor and outdoor seasons. It actually fueled her even more. Vacca won the indoor New Balance Nationals in March by clearing 13-9¼ and earned her sixth national title. She also won this year’s Penn Relays to become a four-time champion in the event.

Vacca will close out her high school career this weekend in the PIAA track and field championships and is seeded No. 2 in the pole vault. The defending state champion will compete at 9 a.m. Friday at Shippensburg University and look to break her PIAA outdoor record of 14 feet that she set last season.

“That would be awesome,” said Vacca, who lives in Plymouth Meeting. “I haven’t hit a 14 bar for a minute, so I would love to do that — to beat my own record is insane, and that would be incredible.”

Currently, her personal best is 14 feet, 5¼ inches. She achieved that in the summer with Philly Jumps Club at Vault Factory in Bernards Township, N.J. The event is ran by Rutgers pole vaulting coach Carl Porambo.

Vacca has high standards for herself, but she doesn’t necessarily pay attention to the record books. It’s about the attitude she brings to each meet. In February, she started to experience overuse, and it led to an Achilles tendon injury at the Millrose Games.

It took a little over a month to get back to full recovery. At the Penn Relays, she was looking to rebuild her jump after the injury.

“Once I get on the runway, I want to prove that even though I’m not feeling at my best, that I can still jump high and show out,” Vacca said. “Even though I’m sick or coming back from an injury or something like that, I just want to prove to myself that I can do it.”

And while Friday will be the last time she’s representing the Mount, Vacca will still be wearing purple and gold next year at the University of Washington. Her college decision, she said, was tough. She also was deciding between Virginia Tech and Illinois.

She knew deep down, though, that Seattle was the place she wanted to be.

“I was a little scared to admit that I wanted to travel so far away,” Vacca said. “I think that kind of held me back, but once I understood that [my parents] supported me, no matter what decision I made, I felt a lot better about it. I felt like I could vocalize that more.”

Vacca believes the challenges she has dealt with in the last year have helped her become a more mature athlete. She knows how to handle the hard parts of pole vaulting and when it’s time to stop jumping. Those lessons will serve her well as she takes the next step in her career.

» READ MORE: How Mount St. Joseph’s Veronica Vacca leaped into the national pole vault rankings

That’s because it’s about the long haul, too. Since Vacca was a child, she aspired to be an Olympian — it didn’t matter the sport. She said she thinks about the 2028 Los Angeles Games, but the idea doesn’t consume her.

“I would love to be there,” she said. “I feel like I could put in the time, and I could work myself hard enough to maybe get to the qualifiers. … I feel like we’re definitely working toward a dream.”

For now, she’s focused on the leap she’ll be taking at the state championship meet. Vacca certainly set the bar high for the next generation of pole vaulters, but it gives the 18-year-old pride knowing she made a name for herself in the sport.

“Eighth grade me would be so excited to see me go off to college with so many records set,” Vacca said. “I’m excited for a new generation of young girls to come in with the passion and drive that I have to see my numbers and think, ‘I want to beat that.’”