Golden Eagle Q&A: Carrie Schmid
7/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
July 28, 2008
Senior pole vaulter Carrie Schmid joined the Golden Eagles as a walk-on her freshman year, and has propelled the team to success since. Seeing success early, she set the Marquette freshman indoor pole vault record at the BIG EAST Indoor Championship, tied for first in her first collegiate meet, and recorded the Marquette freshman and all-time outdoor vault record at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championship. As a sophomore, Schmid set an indoor personal-best and broke the school record in the pole vault at the Tadd Metzger Invitational. As a junior, Schmid finished in fifth place at the BIG EAST Indoor Championship and and garnered All-BIG EAST honors after placing third at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championship. Most recently, she qualified and finished in 19th place at the NCAA Mideast Regionals in the spring of 2008.
How did you originally get into pole vaulting?
I was a gymnast in high school, so I joined the track team to stay in shape for gymnastics. The coach thought that I'd be a good fit for pole vaulting since it's kind of the same motions as gymnastics in some events, so that's kind of how I got into it.
What made you decide on Marquette?
I knew I wanted to be in Milwaukee because a lot of my family is from Milwaukee, so I knew I just wanted to go to a school down here and Marquette was a good school. It was kind of easy for me to choose Marquette over the other schools down here.
How did you go from being a walk-on to being such a crucial part of the team?
I never really thought that I'd be a collegiate athlete when I was in high school, but then my junior and senior year I started doing better in pole vault. I thought maybe a Division III school would be good for me for pole vault, but I really wanted to go to Marquette. I was ready to give up pole vault to be at Marquette, but then [head coach] Bert [Rogers] said he'd let me on the team. I don't know, I just surprised myself. Maybe it was the lifting and the workouts that we did because in high school, I just pole vaulted and never really did a workout. Then I had to lift here and go to practice and we only pole vaulted twice a week, so I think just becoming stronger and faster just helped me that much, and the coaching differences from high school to college.
What did it feel like to have success right away when you got here?
It was really surprising for me - I didn't really know what to expect. In high school, to go to conference was just like, "Oh, you got to conference," but here you had to qualify for conference and I didn't really realize how big of a deal it was until after I did. So I think later on, I just kind of surprised myself because I didn't really know right away that it really meant what it did. I was really happy, and my family was really proud of me, so it was a good experience.
Did you feel pressure after the 2005-06 season to perform as well as you did your first year?
Kind of. I know that my junior year, I was really nervous and then next year I really feel the pressure. I want to do really well and I really want to go to Nationals next year. That's going to be a lot of hard work, but my sophomore year I actually got [mononucleosis] so I didn't do very well, but then my junior year I did a lot better.
You mentioned your team strength and conditioning. What does the team do in terms of workouts and training?
During the summer we're just getting our conditioning levels up. Then when we get back, we practice three days a week and lift three days a week. Sometime in the fall, we start doing five days of practice a week. Once season starts, we kind of tone down a little bit to three easy days a week and two hard days. In the past, we started lifting twice a week but last year, we still lifted three times a week. As much as I don't like lifting, it's so helpful.
What does it feel like to know that you hold a number of Marquette records?
I haven't really thought about that. It feels really good and when people ask me how I'm doing, it's cool to tell them that I'm doing well. It gives my parents and grandparents something to laugh about, so that's pretty cool. Last year was the first time in six years that Marquette hosted a track meet.
What was it like to be able to compete here in front of people you know?
It was really cool - there were a lot of people that showed up and some of my friends came and made me posters and stuff, so that was exciting. The weather was really windy, so it was really hard to compete but I think both Liz [Wilke] and I made bars and it was just cool to show off. I think if we were somewhere else and we didn't have our friends and family there to watch us, it would be really hard to get over that barrier of the winds and conditions.
How exciting was it to compete in the NCAA Mideast Regionals at the end of May?
It was really exciting. It was a small group [of Marquette athletes that went] which we wanted to be bigger, but it was really fun getting to know the people that went. It was really exciting to see all the really good vaulters because a lot of the meets that we went to, I was the top one, and I'd have to wait for a lot of bars to go and then I'd come in like 45 minutes after it started. It was cool being the first one to start and just see all these girls that are at the same level I am and even higher. It was really fun to watch and it gives me hope that I have potential to be as good as some of those girls are.
What was the atmosphere at Regionals like?
The officials were really strict - they wouldn't let you listen to music or anything like that. All the girls were super nice, and usually when you go to a higher meet like that the girls are kind of stuck up and don't want to talk to you, but these girls were really, really nice and you could tell that they wanted to be there. It was a fun atmosphere.
What's it like having a team so big in terms of team dynamics?
It's hard to get to know everybody. There's different groups, like the distance girls will usually stay together and there's the sprint girls and then the field event girls. You really get to know those ones really well, and then out of track we get to get together as a big group and hang out. I really think it's better having the big group because then you aren't stuck with the same people and you don't get sick of them. I hear from other teams that there's so much drama and a lot of the people just get annoyed with each other. We see each other a lot but we don't see each other to the point where we're just so sick of each other and annoyed.
Do you prefer indoor or outdoor season?
There's a difference because in the outdoor season, there's always the weather that can cause problems. In high school, I always liked outdoor but now I'm starting to realize that there are a lot of problems that the outdoor season does cause. I always seem to do better in outdoor season too. I don't know if it's because it's further along in my training. I seem to do better if the weather is bad. Like if it rains and stuff or is really windy, I seem to do better than if it's really nice - it's weird - I don't know if it distracts me from other stuff. I think it rained when we were in Missouri or Iowa and I still pole vaulted my [personal record].
You were captain of your gymnastics team in high school and lettered four years. Is it hard not being able to compete anymore?
I really miss gymnastics. I do miss it, but pole vaulting is a good distraction. In high school I always thought that I'd go on to do gymnastics in college but then I just got better at pole vaulting and it became more important to me.
This year is your senior season, have you had any thoughts about how this will be your last go around?
I think about it all the time. It's really kind of depressing because it's going to be over and it's going by really fast. I can't believe how fast it's gone by. I'm still thinking about indoor maybe then doing it my fifth year because I'm going to be here two extra semesters for student teaching. It just depends what I can work out with my teacher and what not.
Being a senior, will you adopt more of a leadership role on the team?
I think I will be more of a leader. In the past, the captains that we've had, some of the stuff I've agreed with that they do and some of the stuff I haven't. I feel like I want to be a person that the freshmen and sophomores can look up to and don't feel pressure.
What have you been up to this summer?
I've been doing a lot. I've been working here [at the university's childcare center] full-time and practicing and lifting in the mornings as much as I can. I went on vacation for a week so I kind of feel bad about that. Last week, I was in Stevens Point doing a pole vault camp with high schoolers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana. That was really fun, I coached there and we ended up being counselors too. Liz Wilke, the other pole vaulter from Marquette was there with me, and it was really fun getting to know all these younger vaulters and seeing all their different styles. I feel like it's helped me become a better vaulter and coach because I get to see the different things that they do and bad habits and good habits. Coming into Marquette, I knew nothing about pole vaulting - I just did it. The other people on the team used to tease me about how I didn't know anything, I just listened and did what [the coaches] told me. But now, I actually can see in videos of myself what I'm doing wrong. It's helpful being a coach to be able to look at stuff like that in your own vaulting.
What do you hope to do after graduation?
I'm supposed to be a teacher and I don't know if I want to do that anymore, so I guess it just depends on whatever happens in the next couple of years. I love working with kids, obviously I work at the daycare. I just don't know if I want to be working with that age group, so I might end up being in another daycare situation. I'm majoring in Spanish as well, so I might try to do something that has to do with that, depending on what happens. Once I student teach, I might end up loving it, but right now with all the lesson plans, it's bogging me down.
Do you have any goals for the upcoming season, either individually or as a team?
I would like to qualify for Nationals and do well at Nationals. At conference, I want to place in the top two. I placed in the top three in the outdoor meet last year, and I'd like to get first place obviously and get all-conference again. As a team, I know that we have a lot of potential to do a lot better than we did last year. I think getting in the top half of the conference would be a reasonable goal for us as a team, for indoor and outdoor. And getting a lot more regional qualifiers - there are a lot of girls and guys on the team that have potential to be regional qualifiers.
Players Mentioned
