Clayton Fritsch, a member of Sealy High School’s Class of 2017 and current redshirt junior at Sam Houston State, took fourth place in the pole vault competition at the NCAA Outdoor National Championship meet in Oregon June 9.

The top-eight finish secured his fourth All-American honor in his fifth national championship meet on the collegiate circuit. Fritsch also qualified for the Olympic Trials, back in Oregon later this week, where he’ll compete for a roster spot on the United States’ team ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan at the end of July.

At outdoor nationals, Fritsch cleared his opening height on the first attempt then needed all three attempts to clear the next bar. After he landed on the mat following a clearance of 18’ 2.5” (5.55m), Fritsch got up and pumped his fist knowing he solidified a top-five spot in the nation.

“I just knew cleaning that bar meant that I was going up in rankings, because it took me three attempts the time before that too,” Fritsch said in a June 11 interview. “I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have to jump higher if I want to get higher up in the standings.’”

Fritsch said this field of 24 vaulters was plentiful with familiar faces and that helped him settle into the grandest stage of outdoor collegiate track.

“A little bit bigger group than what we’re quite used to but the good thing is there was a lot of guys that I have jumped against in the past at national meets,” Fritsch said. “It was kind of nice being able to have those guys there and it kind of made the wait go a little faster.”

The eventual champion, Branson Ellis with a first-attempt clearance at 18’ 8.25” (5.70m), was another familiar competitor of Fritsch’s as a representative of Stephen F. Austin University. The Lumberjacks have competed against Sam Houston in the Southland Conference and will make the move alongside the Bearkats to the Western Athletic Conference next year.

“We’re always battling back and forth. It’s funny because he’ll get me, I’ll get him, but at the end of the day we always go up to each other and hug and say, ‘It’s a pleasure to jump with you always.’ For him, the story he’s had is crazy. He actually no-heighted it at indoor nationals this year so for him to come back and win it all at outdoor nationals is awesome, I’m super happy for him,” Fritsch said. “Me and Branson even talked about it there, we said, ‘Let’s go show them what the Southland’s got.’ Especially with us moving to the WAC next year, now that’s kind of like ‘Welcome to the WAC, you got the national champion coming in and there are more studs to follow.’”

All of the vaulters had to wait their turn early in the Thursday afternoon competition when an Oregon rain shower caused a weather delay. Coming out of the intermission, Fritsch said the whole group was impacted by the wait.

“It’s hard to say just because it definitely helps when you look at it like, ‘OK, everybody has to deal with this,’ and I guess the way I was able to deal with it was a little bit different than other people,” Fritsch said. “There were a couple guys that definitely should have jumped higher – and, personally, I think I should have jumped higher – so if we wouldn’t have had the rain, the outcome may have been a little different.”

Still, a fourth All-American honor in five competitions – a sixth trip was cut short at the onset of the corona-virus pandemic the day the competition was supposed to begin – for the kid from Sealy is nothing to shrug off.

“Even when I’m talking with (Sealy vault coach) Jeff Brandes every once in a while, he’ll say, ‘You’re from Sealy, when you’re jumping, you’re kind of jumping for Sealy,’” Fritsch said. “I’m jumping for myself but at the same time, I have all these other people backing me and I can’t help but think, I’m jumping through these guys. I look at things a lot in a team aspect and I think that’s one of those things where it’s my team. Sealy, Sam Houston, all those guys are who I’m jumping for and jumping with.”

Those groups will soon back him for a shot at Olympic competition when the trials at the end of this week determine the athletes who will represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.

“We’ll go back home Saturday (June 12), and we’ve got about, just three or four days to recover and train back in Huntsville and then we’ll come back up here (to Oregon) and hopefully jump for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team,” Fritsch said. “It’s insane, it hasn’t hit me yet. I guess it’ll hit me when I get there and see everybody’s faces, all the guys you watch and kind of look up to as vaulters and I’ll actually get to compete against them.” Fritsch will make a return trip to Oregon for the trials with Sam Houston teammates, as he did on this trip to nationals which also made this year’s competition a little extra special. Joshua Smith barely missed qualifying for the 400-meter hurdle finals, Bryan Henderson registered 15th in the 100-meter dash and the 4x100-meter relay team of Smith, Eric Callaway, Nathaniel McRae and Denzel Downing finished 22nd overall.

“The past couple trips I’ve made, it has been by myself or with one other person so when you get to go to one of these big meets like that and share the experience with other people there and make memories with them, it’s definitely a plus to making the whole trip in general,” Fritsch said. “Looking back on it, I’ve been (to Oregon) once before and I was thinking, ‘OK that’s different, this is different,’ me and the coaches who had been there before were kind of comparing like, ‘Oh man, that was nothing like that back then.’”