FORTVILLE — The 2023 track and field season was an important one for Mt. Vernon senior Riley Nielsen in more ways than one.
Not only was it her final season pole vaulting in a Mt. Vernon uniform, it was a chance for her to prove to herself, and others, that her injury history wasn’t going to be a dark cloud over her outstanding Mt. Vernon career.
“That was obviously my main goal this year, to just prove to everyone that my injury did not define my time at Mt. Vernon and that it wouldn’t affect my senior season,” Nielsen said.
The return to the high school pole vaulting stage was a long time coming for the 2023 Daily Reporter Hancock County Girls Field Athlete of the Year.
Nielsen missed her entire junior season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered at an indoor meet in January of 2022.
The injury put the red-hot start to her pole vaulting career on hold, but only temporarily.
As a sophomore, and in her first year competing, she took home top honors at the Hancock County Meet, Hoosier Heritage Conference Championships, Pendleton Heights Sectional and Ben Davis Regional. She broke the school record as well, and made her first trip to the IHSAA Girls Track and Field State Finals.
With a full track and field season off, and a very tough injury to come back from, Nielsen didn’t miss a beat when she returned to action.
After a successful return to competition over the summer of 2022, Nielsen carried that momentum over into the high school season.
She took first place at the county, conference, and sectional once again, and at the Pike Regional, she placed third to qualify for another state finals, this time in Bloomington at Indiana University.
“One of the big things was the help of my coaches. My club coach gave me workouts to stay strong during my injury. I was working on arms and core stuff while I was injured,” Nielsen said. “But it was also just my mentality and always telling myself that it’s going to be okay and to just keep pushing to come back stronger than I was.”
The state meet was finally Nielsen’s chance to lay to rest all the thoughts about her prior injury, and a chance to cap off another dominant season.
She cleared a height of 11-feet, 6-inches to set a personal outdoor record and school outdoor record. The performance earned her a ninth-place finish, and the state medal she had been chasing.
“I think that medaling at state really proved to people that you can get through anything as long as you believe and work through it,” Nielsen said.
The state finals trip wasn’t Nielsen’s first of the 2023 season. In February, she competed in the IHSAA Girls Diving State Finals at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.
She credits that trip, and diving as a whole, as playing a major role in preparing her for her final track and field season and what to expect at the track state finals.
“Diving was a whole different world, but it helped prepare me a lot for track,” Nielsen said. “I didn’t think that I would get to state in diving, but getting there helped get me ready for the atmosphere and what to expect at state with all the people around.”
Nielsen transferred to Mt. Vernon her freshman year and, at the time, did not compete in pole vault. Just four years later, she holds both the school indoor and outdoor records with heights of 11-feet, 9-inches and 11-feet, 6-inches, respectively.
“Mt. Vernon has given me the best opportunities, and it’s truly like a family atmosphere. It provided me with my best friends and, honestly, just a great high school experience,” Nielsen said. “It’s definitely sad leaving and going to a school that’s not anywhere close, but I’m excited to see what they do in the future, and I am really grateful for what they have done for me.”
Just three years after starting pole vaulting and a year removed from her injury, Nielsen has achieved all she wanted to at the high school level. She is ready for her next challenge at Central Michigan University and continuing a pole vaulting career that she thought might have been over just a short time ago.
“The doctors told me that I would never pole vault the same and that there were doubts about my injury,” Nielsen said. “I think in the end, my main goal was to just prove to everybody that if you believe, then you can achieve.”
