CHERRY TWP — Kendall Grossman remembers feeling the pole snap. Seeing her cleats rise above her head. The sensation of plummeting to the ground.

Everything blurred. Slowed. Time seemed to stop, as if it weren't really happening.

But it was.

Grossman had sprinted down a runway and taken off during a pole vault competition a thousand times before, but this time was different. Never had she broken a pole and never had she fallen outside of the pit.

Until now.

People rushed to her, asking if she was OK. They examined her, concern washed over their faces.

“It was scary,” the junior on the Moniteau girls track and field team said. “I was really shaken up.”

Then the thoughts began careening through her mind. Why did it happen? Was it my fault? Can I get up and do this again?

“This was the first meet of the year,” Grossman said. “I kept thinking, 'This can't be how my season starts.'”

Deep down, Grossman didn't want to vault again, but she knew she had to because the event wasn't just any season-opening meet. It was against rival Karns City, “and we needed the points,” Grossman said.

Her father and Moniteau pole vault coach Matt Grossman wasn't too keen on his daughter vaulting again, either, after the incident.

“My heart stopped,” Matt said. “I walked over to her and at that point I was wondering, 'What do I do?' She sat up and she was alright. I asked her if she was ready to take the next jump. I was scared to death, but if I went with the dad role, I was afraid she'd never jump again.”

Matt also sweetened the deal.

“He said he'd give me $100 if I made the next height,” Kendall Grossman said, chuckling.

She did, even though “it was a terrible jump. Just terrible,” she said.

When she was done, she walked over to him and asked, “Where's that $100?'”

But all was not well. The incident shook Kendall more than she could have ever anticipated.

Kendall had placed second at the PIAA Class AA Track and Field Championships the previous two years, but she suddenly found herself back at square one. The 11-foot vaults she had grown accustomed to making seemed impossible. Just clearing a height became a chore.

“It took a mental toll on me,” Kendall said. “The first few meets (after) I just made 9-6 and cried when I was done – and I'm not a crier. People would come up to me and tell me it was going to be OK and I was going to get back to where I was and I'd feel like telling them, 'I don't need you to tell me I will get better. I know I'll get better.'”

All her father and pole vault coach could do was get her to trust the process.

“She needed to build herself back up,” Matt said. “We really did go back to basics.”

Kendall went back down to a 12-foot pole, which proved to be the right move. As she got more comfortable vaulting again, her confidence and performances improved.

She cleared 11-3 at the Redbank Valley invitational and then tied her own school record with an effort of 11-6 Friday at the District 9 championships.

“I feel stronger and more confident in myself than ever before,” Kendall said. “I just had to realize, 'OK. I'm a pole vaulter. I didn't get hurt. You broke a pole. That makes you a real pole vaulter now.”

Kendall is seeded fourth in the event at the PIAA meet, which will be held Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University. The top seed, Taylor Shriver of Waynesburg, cleared 12-7 at the WPIAL championships.

Kendall, though, feels like she has one big vault in her again.

“I think good things have come from this,” Kendall said. “In a weird way, I think it's helped me.”