OLIVESBURG – If for some crazy reason there was still any doubt, Liam Kuhn has officially found his niche.
The competition in Ohio high school pole vaulting is officially on notice.
The Crestview junior heads off to the Division III state championships this week after thundering his way to district and regional gold medals with ease.
Kuhn set meet records at both events, first thumping the competition by more than 3 feet with a PR of 15-8 at the North Robinson District, then cruising to the crown by 14 inches with a 15-6 clearance at the North Royalton Regional.
Success is not new to the CHS junior. As Kuhn carried the medals he’s won over the years in preparation for a photo Wednesday at Crestview, the massive cluster of medal clanged together in the breeze like a million wind chimes.
At many events, he doesn’t even start attempting his vaults until the bar is so high that the majority of competitors have already fouled out.
Kuhn’s already got three regional titles, two district titles and two Firelands Conference titles with a year of high school left,
Needless to say, he’s no secret in Ohio’s pole vault circles.
But after clearing the daunting 15-foot height for the first time this season, Kuhn said he’s ready to ratchet up his state podium spot following placements of sixth in 2023 and fourth last spring.
“Getting fourth is fun, but I’m really chasing that first-place spot,” Kuhn said Wednesday while sporting some freshly dyed, state-bound hair. “I want that state title and that feeling of accomplishing what I’ve grown up watching (at Crestview).”
“State is going to be really fun this year,” he said. “I love jumping against the best of the best because it drives more passion and the competition makes you want to do the best you can. In those meets … the adrenaline just pumps.”
If he can podium for a third time, he will be the first Cougar to do so in the pole vault, surpassing his current coach, Shawn Bailey (eighth in 2022, fifth in 2023).
It’s an event Crestview has become known for on the state stage. The Cougars have placed in the Top 8 at the championships seven times in their history.
Before Kuhn and Bailey, Michael Kochenderfer was a state runner-up in 2016. His PR of 15-10 is one of the last things Kuhn is trying to hunt down.
Prior to him, CHS had state placements from Gary Dudley (third in 1987) and Tony Crank (fifth in 1978).
Kuhn’s father, Tim Kuhn, has been the Crestview boys track coach for nearly 20 years now and the Cougars’ athletic director since 2013. A 1996 CHS graduate, he remembers chasing Crank’s 13-9 PR when he was vaulting.
“You’ve got to be pretty fearless to be a pole vaulter,” Tim said. “… To be good at it, you’ve got to practice; you can’t just pick up a pole in March and think you’re gonna be jumping high.”
Bailey has been a big part of the program’s progression.
The 2023 Crestview graduate competed at NAIA Indiana Tech University for a year after high school before transferring to the University of Akron to focus solely on academics.
He still competes unattached with the club at the Buckeye Pole Vault Academy in Columbus.
When Bailey was in high school, he was asked to give a few pointers to Crestview’s middle schoolers in the event. Kuhn was one of them, and Bailey said a variety of boys and girls vaulters at CHS now are routinely clearing the bar at bigger heights.
In a unique moment in 2023, Kuhn was a freshman while his coach was a senior, and the duo claimed fifth and sixth at state to help the Cougars place fifth as a team.
“He did a lot of things wrong that I also did wrong, so it was easier for me to think about how to correct myself while coaching him,” Bailey said. “That did help me out my senior year.”
Kuhn said it was like having another brother.
“We both just click, we get along well and our communication is great,” he said. “We’re both on the same wavelength and we almost know what each other is thinking.”
Bailey said his last two springs guiding Kuhn have shown a lot of growth. The 6-foot-4 junior’s PRs have risen from 14-2 to 14-8 to now 15-8 over three high school seasons.
A bit of the jump this year can be attributed to Kuhn – also Crestview’s quarterback in football – opting to stop wrestling in the winter and instead compete in indoor track, where he placed third at state.
Kuhn was able to use that time to refine his training and technique in the pole vault. Bailey said the junior added about 20 pounds of muscle while increasing his upper-body strength.
“His sophomore year, he had all the building blocks and physical abilities to do close to what he’s doing this year, but his execution just wasn’t the greatest,” Bailey said. “So we focused a lot more on, ‘OK, what do you need to do on and off the runway to get you to this point?’”
“When we were transferring to the runway, it was more mental,” he added. “Let’s stay relaxed, let’s hit our cues. That’s what’s gonna allow him to jump high. When he just goes out there and tries to brute-force things, it doesn’t go well for him.”
Bailey said using more finesse and a relaxed approach has led to much more consistency in the vault for Kuhn, but the junior will need to have a killer instinct if he wants to chase down gold this week.
He comes into state seeded behind Cincinnati Country Day sophomore Luke Schnieber (16-7 seeded height, third place at state last year), Fremont St. Joseph senior Sam Paeth (16-0) and Ansonia sophomore Cade Shellhaas (15-8).
Last year, 15-4 won state in Division III. The year before, it was 15-10.
There are a ton of factors that could weigh into the results when it comes to pole vault, but Bailey feels he’s ready.
“He’s pretty amped up about this state meet,” the coach said. “I don’t think his numbers really show what he’s actually capable of doing.
“You see 15-8 and 15-6 these last two weeks, but some of the 16-foot shots we’ve taken in the last three or four weeks have been really, really good, and it shows his ability to jump 16, 16-and-a-half feet. … The height is there.”
The other aspect of a run at a state title for Kuhn is the fact that he’s gotten used to seeing his teammates do it.
Crestview has grown into a small-school powerhouse under Tim Kuhn. The Cougar boys won their fifth straight FC title this year – and ninth since 2014 – and last year collected their fourth consecutive regional team championship.
Behind graduated Wade Bolin, who took gold in both the shot put and discus last spring as a senior, Crestview placed third in the state.
Bolin’s titles were the seventh and eighth in the history of CHS boys track, a list that also includes recent gold in the 4×400 relay in 2023 and the 800-meter run by Kuhn’s brother, Ross Kuhn, in 2021.
“We’ve always had this rich tradition with our track and field program being really good, and we’ve done really good at state meets in the past,” Liam said. “You watch everyone get high up on the podium, and as a kid when you’re watching that, it’s like, ‘Man, I can’t wait for that to be me one day.’”
This year’s Cougars again send a highly talented crew to Columbus. Alongside Kuhn – who also qualified to state in the 110 hurdles (15.16 PR) – the team’s 4×800 relay of Cooper Brockway, Bransen Hider, Everett Smith and Logan Friges is seeded second on its heat sheet at 8:00.40.
Add in the 4×400 relay of Max Durbin, Brockway, Smith and Friges, and Durbin individually in the 300 hurdles, and the Cougars are bringing plenty of red and black back to state.
“It took time to build that culture within our program where the expectation was to compete for state titles,” Tim Kuhn said. “You can talk about it and put those goals out there for your team, but until you start actually reaping some of the benefits of your work, your kids don’t always believe the jargon that’s coming out of your mouth.”
Liam Kuhn said the meet records he set at the district and regional events were his biggest achievements this season. He added that first-place finishes at the Mansfield Mehock Relays and the Perkins Pirate Invitational proved that he can compete with big-school talent as well.
When the state pole vault kicks off at 4 p.m. Friday, even bigger things will be on his mind. Kuhn wants to become a pillar of the CHS powerhouse.
“A state title is the only thing missing (in Crestview’s pole vault accomplishments),” Kuhn said. “I feel like I will be able to do it, but it’s going to be a battle. Hopefully it will come true this week or next season.
“If I was to get the school record and a state championship, that would be just a surreal moment and a cherry on top of a great season.”