She steps out onto the runway and her mind immediately sets on the bar. As she prepares herself for the jump, she visualizes what she needs to do and how it will feel when she hits each position accurately. Her feet leave the runway and she pulls herself into the air and over the bar.

Boom. She’s back on the mat — just like that.

“It goes so quickly that by the time I jump I only have about two seconds until I’m back on the ground,” Merritt said. “But those are some of the most fun seconds of the jump.”

Kaitlyn Merritt, senior varsity track member, otherwise known as “The Girl Who Got into Stanford” or “That Really Good Pole-Vaulter”, currently holds the fourth best female high school pole vault mark ever in the United States with her vault of 13’09”. However, Merritt faced many obstacles other than a 13-foot bar to get into the school of her dreams.

“Middle school would go until 3:05 and then gymnastics would start at 3:30 and I would be done at 9,” Merritt said. “I learned how to do my homework in the car and right after gymnastics.”

Merritt’s constant juggling of time in her early years of gymnastics allowed for her success throughout high school with a constant 4.83 GPA. She was able to manage middle school with her passion for gymnastics, which would soon be replaced with that of pole-vaulting.

One of her father’s patients had seen a gymnastics photo of Merritt on her father’s desk. The patient told him that if she ever decided to quit and was interested in pole-vaulting, she should give him a call

“I ended up quitting that year and we called his patient and he set me up with a coach,” Merritt said. “I fell in love with it from the first day.”

Although her love for pole-vaulting was instant, getting a hang of the sport that would soon be noticed by her dream school took time.

“Pole vaulting is 60 percent mental strength and 40 percent physical strength as I have learned,” Merritt said. “So I really need to focus on letting all negative thoughts dissolve.”

Mental challenges are present for Merritt not just in her athletics, but her academics as well. The application process for college is nerve-racking, especially when applying for a top-tier school like Stanford. Merritt’s application process was just as intimidating as her before-competition jitters.

“I didn’t know what they would want me to say because some of their questions were really creative and different,” Merritt said.

One of the questions asked was to write a letter to your future roommate which led Merritt to think outside of the box. Other questions kept with the more traditional approach such as “What is most important to you?” When answering this question, Merritt struggled to find the right perspective.

“At first I put family as the most important thing in my life, but my counselor said that was too cliché,” Merritt said. “So I started to write about imperfections, but in the end it became more based off challenges.”

Although Merritt struggled to find the voice in her paper at first, these challenges were important to her success. This time, her reward came in shape of a white envelope addressed to Merritt from Stanford University.

“It was almost unreal, and it kind of still feels like I’m in a dream,” Merritt said.

Years of hard work in the classroom and on the track have led Merritt to achieve her goals. Although she has accomplished what others can only dream of, she remains humble.

“It’s definitely an honor to have people know your name, but at the same time it’s the same as if people didn’t know who I was,” Merritt said. “Pole vaulting is just something I love to do and it’s cool to get the recognition from it, but at the end of the day I’m just a girl who pole vaults.”