National Championship
2015 Indoor Pole Vault (17'4.50")
2015 Outdoor Pole Vault (17'06.25")
2016 Indoor Pole Vault (18'1.25")
2016 Outdoor Pole Vault (17'4.50")
2017 Indoor Pole Vault (17'0.75")
2017 Outdoor Pole Vault (17'10.50")
2019 Indoor Pole Vault (17'4.50")
As a freshman, Luke Winder swept the indoor and outdoor national championships in the pole vault in 2015, winning hotly-contested competitions with familiar rivals both times.
He scored North Central's fourth men's indoor title in the event in the past seven years. The previous three titles were won by Winder's older brothers Jake '10 and Josh '13 Winder.
He easily cleared his first two attempts of the competition at 16 feet, 2 3/4 inches and 16'8 3/4" before passing at 16'10 3/4". As the bar was raised to 17'0 3/4", Winder was still joined in battle by Andrew Bartnett of Johns Hopkins University (Maryland) and Tim Moses of Messiah College (Pennsylvania).
Both Bartnett and Moses cleared the height, while Winder passed to 17'2 3/4" after one unsuccessful attempt. He made it over 17'2 3/4" on the first try to move back into the driver's seat, though Moses remained in contention by clearing on his third attempt. The pair moved up to 17'4 1/2", where Winder sealed the championship by clearing on his second try.
At the outdoor championships, Winder added the outdoor title, needing every ounce of competitive resolve to secure the win despite entering the meet as the prohibitive favorite. Entering the competition after the majority of the 20-man field had been eliminated, he notched a pair of first-attempt clearances before passing two heights to move the bar to 17 feet, 1/4 inch. Just three other entrants remained at that point, including Bartnett, who also had not missed an attempt.
Both vaulters cleared the bar on their third attempt, leaving them as the only remaining contenders for the national title. Winder passed on the next bar at 17'2 1/4", but Bartnett cleared it on his first attempt to give himself the upper hand. Bartnett also cleared 17'4 1/4" on the first try, and Winder missed once before electing to pass his next two attempts to the next height, 17'6 1/4". On his final attempt, needing a clearance to get the win, Winder summoned his remaining reserves and sailed over the bar to secure the 10th national pole vault championship in the Cardinals' history.
"I'm beyond blessed," he said. "I knew it was going to be a battle and I knew I would have to jump a big bar, but I knew I had it in me. I've never been in such a pressure situation, and it's fitting it was at the national meet.
"It came down to that last attempt two or three times, and I seriously can't put into words how much I really had to form myself to the process and trust in that. It takes a lot of effort to do that, to dedicate yourself to your process and not lose your mind or get nervous. I knew if I trusted my dad, and stayed in the process and trusted in God, things would be okay."
Winder encountered Bartnett again at the 2016 indoor national championships, as the two were the final remaining vaulters when the bar was raised to 17'2 3/4", and Bartnett put the pressure on by clearing 17'2 3/4" on his final attempt at the bar, but Winder sealed his third straight national-championship win by clearing 17'4 1/2" on his second attempt.
With the victory in hand, Winder elected to have the bar raised to 18'1 1/4", in an attempt to break the North Central indoor record of 18'0 1/2" held by his brother Jake Winder '10 since 2009 and the Division III meet record of 18'1" held by Hans Schmidt of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse since 2004. On the third attempt, Luke Winder sailed over the bar with relative ease, putting a perfect cap on the competition.
"I just came out and performed," he said. "I knew that if I put the numbers together and just executed my technique that I'd be able to make it. Coming down to a third attempt was pretty nerve-wracking, but this one worked out for me. Coming down, I saw the bar and I didn't even touch it, and I couldn't hold in my emotions. I just flipped out and ran back down the runway.
"I've run down the runway before, and it's only been in the most exciting points of pole vaulting in my life. The time I qualified for state as a freshman in high school and tonight were the only times I've done that. Those two days are the happiest days of my life in pole vaulting."
At the 2016 outdoor championships, Winder avoided a self-induced mishap and completed a sweep of the indoor and outdoor national titles in the pole vault for the second consecutive year.
With the temperatures well into the 80s, Winder held off his entry into the competition until the bar had been raised to 5.20 meters (17 feet, 3/4 inch) and only two other competitors remained.
"We wanted to make sure to open up a little bit higher," Winder said. "I didn't come here to jump 5.05 or 5.15. Obviously, I came here to win. Opening up at 5.20, I guess, is a little bit risky at a national championship, but I've done it about four times this year. It was more energy management than anything."
The strategy nearly backfired, as his first two attempts were unsuccessful. Taking the runway for a make-or-break third attempt, Winder cleared with room to spare and sealed the championship with his next vault, sailing over the bar at 5.30 meters (17'4 1/2") on his first attempt.
"There really weren't too many nerves (entering the third attempt)," Winder recalled. "It was more frustration with myself. I shouldn't have been in that position but I put myself in it. It was 100 percent my fault, but we got through it and ended up coming away with a national title."
He added a third indoor national title as a junior in 2017, as North Central hosted the event and won its fifth indoor team national championship. This time, he secured the win after just two trips down the runway. He opened competition when the bar moved up to 16 feet, 8 3/4 inches, after much of the field had been eliminated, clearing the bar on his first attempt.
He then waited until the bar rested at 17'0 3/4" to vault again, once more clearing on his first attempt and sealing the victory. He made three unsuccessful attempts at 17'6 1/2" before calling an end to his day.
"A lot of people said we had a home-field advantage," Winder said. "The things that we did have, sleeping in the same bed, eating the same food, and staying in the same routine, that was the biggest advantage. There was a lot of stuff that did change, and that was something to keep in mind, but it was nice being at home because it reduced the nerves and tension. It was a really fun experience."
Winder became the first vaulter in Division III and the third in collegiate history to claim six combined individual titles at the 2017 outdoor national championships in Geneva, Ohio. The top seed in the meet heading into the event by more than a foot, this victory was nonetheless in doubt until the very end. He entered the competition with a first-attempt clearance at 16 feet, 6 3/4 inches, then cleared 16'10 3/4" on the second attempt and negotiated a successful first attempt at 17'2 3/4" to stand as one of three remaining entrants.
Though pressed to a third attempt, Winder cleared 17'4 1/2" and briefly took the lead, then made what turned out to be the title-clinching vault on the first attempt at 17'8 1/2" before also clearing 17'10 1/2" to establish a new championship meet record.
"It feels awesome," Winder said. "I love to be able to represent North Central this way. I like people to look at me and not only see me, but see God and my family and all my friends who have supported me and the school that I'm attending through the way that I vault. Without the guys who came before me and the guys back at home, none of this would have been possible. After every jump today, I looked up and saw the guys that were here. Every jump was for them."
Winder became the first pole vaulter in collegiate history in any division to win four indoor national championships and seven total national championships, closing out his collegiate career on Mar. 8, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. He waited until the bar had been raised to 16'6.75" to make his first appearance on the runway. The only remaining competitor at that height was the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's Zach Jasinski, whose season-best clearance of 17'0.75" ranked only behind Winder heading into the meet.
Both competitors cleared 16'6.75" and passed at 16'8.75" before electing to make their attempts at 16'10.75". Winder's second-attempt clearance at the height wound up clinching the national championship, and he later cleared 17'4.50" on his second attempt. Winder finished he competition by attempting to break his own Division III indoor championship meet record of 18'1.25", missing on three well-executed attempts at 18'1.75".
