Greenville's Riley Hunt leaves Arkansas to pole vault for the University of South Florida
GREENVILLE – Greenville Senior High School 2020 graduate, Riley Hunt earned the 2019 OHSAA Division I girls pole vault State Championship with an all-time state record jump of 13’7” to bring Gold home to Greenville.
Due to COVID, Hunt was denied the opportunity for a second state championship her senior season and an opportunity to earn a second state title and undoubtedly set a new state pole vault record, breaking her own mark.
Hunt went on to vault for the nation’s premier pole vaulting college program, the Arkansas Razorbacks her freshman season and now looks to help the University of South Florida Bulls track and field program.
“They have a new head coach and he is really improving the program there,” said Hunt. “It’s not top No. 1 like Arkansas but it is definitely an improving program. I’m hoping to help get it to where the head coach wants it to be.”
“The pole vault coach there reminds me a bunch of my high school coach, Micha Coblentz so I am really looking forward to be able to work with him and get back to more like my high school coach.”
South Florida is a member of the AAC (American Athletic Conference) including Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa and UCF.
“Indoor we’ll be coming up towards Chicago, Kentucky, New York,” noted Hunt, “so it will definitely be a lot closer to home so my parents can come and watch.”
“I will definitely be coming up north because for indoor down there they don’t have indoor tracks obviously because it’s Florida so technically for an indoor meet we have to come up north and we’ll be going to Michigan and possibly somewhere in Ohio.”
Hunt will be living off campus at Tampa while continuing her college academic and pole vaulting career that requires year around attention.
“It is a job, it’s a fun job,” Hunt said of DI athletics. “Pole vaulting starts in November and will go until June but working out is a must year around, eating right and making sure the mental work is done is always a must”
“I am looking forward to the schooling and meeting new friends,” Hunt concluded. “Arkansas was not what I expected but I am really excited to start fresh and see what God has planned for me.”
