Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Track and Field Olympic Trials featured heartbreak for some local athletes and elation for others.  As Andrew Theen reports, a pole vaulter from Philomath snuck under everyone's radar.

Erica Bartolina lives in Louisiana, but she grew up on a sheep farm near Philomath.  She joked that now residents of her former hometown are trying to claim her as their own again.

The pole vaulter says with a bit of a Southern drawl that she knew she was capable of making the games, but she had to jump a personal record, which she hadn't done in over a year.

Bartolina said as a high schooler she never dreamed of making the Olympic games.

Erica Bartolina: "I was just amazed when I was in my junior and senior year high school that I could go do this in college.  And I was getting close to being done with college I was like I can keep doing this, and I think I have room to improve some more you know."

Bartolina said she thinks she can still improve, and the next step is in Beijing.