As a freshman pole vaulter, Rutgers’ Chloe Timberg won the first collegiate meet she ever entered.
The Central Bucks West star, who set the Pennsylvania high school record by being the first girl to clear 14 feet, won or finished second in her first five meets for the Scarlet Knights.
Clearly Timberg had no issues adjusting to NCAA competition. Then again, being mentally tough is a given for a successful pole vaulter.
“As I’ve come to college (the mental side) is the biggest change I’ve seen in myself,” Timberg reflected. “Even though I’ve always had a lot of resilience and I don’t get deterred too easily. But when I first started in high school, I was too easily frustrated with it. As an athlete, that can really cloud your judgment and put you in a bad mental space.
“My coaches have helped me say ‘You might not have done this, but you did this, this and this. And next meet, you could put it all together.’ A lot of pole vault is looking ahead at the next meet,” Timberg continued. “For many people, that can get very frustrating to see something so close in reach and missing it by such a little amount. It’s really stepping back and saying ‘Hey, I’m going to get it one of these days. I don’t know when but it is going to come.’ It’s putting that trust in yourself, your coaches and training and knowing you are capable.”
Just halfway through her career, Timberg is already an all-time great On the Banks. She holds Rutgers’ outdoor (4.53 meters) and indoor (4.46 meters) records. At the Texas Relays, Timberg jumped 4.50 meters (14 feet, 9 inches), the highest mark of the season in NCAA competition. She won the 2022 Big Ten Outdoor championships and the 2023 Big Ten Indoor championships.
This Mother’s Day, Timberg repeated as the Big Ten Outdoor champion with a 4.41 meter (14-5.5) jump. She beat her nearest competitor by two inches.
While many vaulters prefer indoor jumping, because there are no variables like wind or rain to deal with, Timberg prefers outdoor. Sunny, calm days are best of course; at a recent gusty outdoor meet, Timberg nearly had the pole blow out of her hands.
“I like outdoor because I learn a lot more about myself and how I am able to handle that adversity and those challenges,” Timberg shared. “I feel like I have come a long way as an athlete in being able to keep my calm in situations like that. You are able to see how strong of a competitor you really are.”
It has been quite a journey for a gymnast who was forced to change sports due to a back injury … and discovered the sport at her brother’s marching band competition of all places. A track practice was going on in another field and Timberg was fascinated watching people try and fling themselves over a bar.
“I went to a clinic the next summer, I really liked it and I was sold on pole vaulting at that point,” she remembered. “That’s a pretty common thing. Former gymnasts and former divers tend to take up pole vault.”
Raw but talented, Timberg spent her junior (recruiting) season under the COVID lockdown. Her intense private workouts made her far more formidable than her official jump scores suggested.
“The recruiting process was a tough one,” she admitted. “When I was going through the process, I was a 12-9 jumper and lot of coaches wanted to see more height. During COVID, you can’t just say to the coach, ‘I know I can jump a foot higher if I were given the opportunity.’ There was rejection from coaches while I was still trying to hold that belief in myself that I could do it. Rutgers saw that capability in me.”
Timberg’s club coach was close to Rutgers’ coach Carl Porambo and recommended his protégé to the Scarlet Knights. It has been a smashing success. Rutgers had the academics that Timberg, an aspiring physical therapist, desired and it helped that New Brunswick is fairly close to Doylestown. Timberg has also meshed beautifully with Porambo.
Timberg’s best jump is 14-10.25. It is agonizing and tantalizing to come so close to 15 feet, her next milestone. With the combination of confidence in her abilities and the humility to keep working hard, Timberg will get there.
“One of the things that I’ve been working on is re-learning form, looking at other vaulters and seeing what do they do really well in their jump versus how that compares to mine. I think learning from other people in the discipline is a really important thing,” Timberg said. Other training involves “a lot of gymnastics-based workouts: bar work and even the balance beam. Coming from a gymnastics background, it’s really cool to be in touch with those roots. It is also a lot of track work: sprinting and plyometrics.
“There are other days where we just take a minute to look at technique, the timing of stuff and video review,” she continued. “There is really so much that goes into it and it’s one of the things that I really like about pole vault. I feel like it is a sport that you have to respect the people who are doing it, because they put so much time and effort into being an overall athlete.”
This summer is “a big academic summer,” Timberg described. She is taking classes, competing in meets and starting to get much deeper into physical therapy. And Timberg knows how to step away from the sport: she hikes, paddleboards and does “non-track” stuff to stay balanced.
But for every jumper, there is always the tease of more inch. “It’s saying ‘What can I do in the meantime? What can I do to improve in the next meet?’ You’re never satisfied,” Timberg grinned.
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