Clayton Fritsch, a member of Sealy High School’s Class of 2017 and a 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.

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 clearing 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.’”

He did just that and earned a fourth All-American honor in five competitions – a sixth trip was cut short at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic the day the competition was supposed to begin.

“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.”

Fritsch also qualified for the Olympic Trials, back in Oregon later that month, where he competed for a roster spot on the United States’ team for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan. He finished tied for 13th overall with a final clearance of 18’ 6.5” (5.65m), just one spot away from advancing to the finals against Olympic competition.

“It was a crazy season but the biggest thing I’m looking forward to is next year. Coming in 13th out of 12 that make it to the finals, that doesn’t necessarily sit right with me or coach (Cutter Bernhard, jumping coach at SHSU) so it’s good to get that fuel back,” Fritsch said. “It’s been good so far, both me and coach were a little bummed out but we already talked the next day about ‘Let’s look at next year already and line things out for summer, we’ve got this much of a break and can get back to it here then let’s focus on these categories that we may have lacked this year and go to work on those and eventually get back to where we want to be again.’”

Where he previously has been includes two medal-winning performances in as many international competitions (the NACAC Championships and the Pan-Am Games) and four All-American honors on the collegiate circuit. Before then, he was a Sealy Tiger and is still proud of his stripes.

“Everyone asks where you are from and you get to talking and, ‘We’re from Texas, the Houston-Sealy area,’ and it’s always cool to get that name out there,” Fritsch said. “We’ll walk into a restaurant, they’ll see Sam Houston and recognize Texas or Huntsville, so it’s kind of cool to see we’re getting the name out there. This random guy I walked by, he was like, ‘Hey man, congratulations on everything,’ and it was kind of cool that just random people out there recognize you and it’s cool that they’re noticing a small-town kid.”