North Allegheny’s Pelusi vaults to WPIAL title

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, May 24, 2018 | 11:00 PM

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When Jono Pelusi considered starting training for the pole vault in seventh grade, it was an easy sell.

The former gymnast took one look at the event and thought it looked dangerous, so the now-North Allegheny senior was in.

Not that Pelusi, who won his first WPIAL Class AAA title with a vault of 14 feet, 9 inches, May 17, at Baldwin High School didn't always stick the landing.

After starting the event, Pelusi was thinking about doing something else shortly after.

“There is such a steep learning curve,” said Pelusi, who will compete at Brown University next year. “I felt like I wouldn't get anywhere. I would jump up and smack my face into the pole. I didn't think it would be something to get the hang of.”

Pelusi was one of three North Allegheny athletes — along with Casey Burton (long jump) and Ayden Owens (110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, long jump) — to win individual district crowns. Owens also teamed up with Donovan Rice, Ehling and Pelusi to win the 1,600 relay.

Tigers coach John Neff saw the progression with Pelusi coming for months.

“I always thought he could do it,” Neff said. “He has been coming into his own at the end of the season. I knew he was one of the top in the WPIAL and the state. We started to see improvements throughout indoor. It was pretty much a nice, steady progression.”

All of the improvement showed at WPIALs, when it came down to Pelusi vaulting against Butler's Jack Codispot, who finished second at 14-3. The duo has a friendly rivalry with each other.

“We did a few vault camps together last summer,” Pelusi said. “It went back-and-forth (who won more). Since I'm me and I'm biased, I would say I won more.”

Pelusi's been able to be in relaxing situations this season. When Pelusi set a personal best of 15-0, he did it at the WPIAL team semifinals when he was the only one vaulting. During that competition, Pelusi said he felt relaxed like he was at a practice instead of a competition.

Pelusi feels a lot more natural than when he started.

Crashing into things is much less of a frequent occurrence.

“My takeoff has been causing me problems in the past year,” Pelusi said. “It would screw me up so I wouldn't get to the second inversion. Once I had the solid takeoff, the heights were going to come because I had the inversion I was finally going to use.”

Josh Rizzo is a freelance writer.

Tags: North Allegheny