South Fayette senior vaulting to record heights
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Melana Schumaker clears 12 feet, 3 inches during the South Fayette Invitational.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Melana Schumaker
Melana Schumaker’s expectations are as lofty as her pole vaults. Twelve feet high and higher.
“I really want to be in the Olympics,” said the South Fayette High School senior. “It’s my dream to do that,”
South Fayette coach Scott Litwinovich doesn’t doubt Schumaker will succeed especially once she enrolls at Youngstown State University in the fall. As a member of the Penguins’ track team, she will have a dedicated pole vault coach.
Currently, Litwinovich serves as the boys and girls track coach at South Fayette. Schumaker’s father, Mike, moves the bar up for Schumaker as she soars higher while Tim Sullivan tweaks her technique at the Steel City Pole Vault Club in Zelienople.
“I can only imagine that Melana will improve literally by leaps and bounds,” Litwinovich said. “What she has been able to do without a true position coach is amazing.”
Schumaker has won every invitational in which she has participated this spring, including the Baldwin Invitational held May 6. At the South Fayette Invitational a week prior, she won the pole vault with a personal record of 12-3.
Additionally, she was the field MVP at the Butler Invitational, winning with a meet record 12-1. She also was the Tri-State Track and Field Coaches Association champion.
“Not too many people do it,” Schumaker said of the event. “I’m the only vaulter here at South Fayette. So it’s pretty cool.”
Before she entered seventh grade, Schumaker did neat things like gymnastics and cheerleading. She also golfed.
“I wasn’t very good at it,” she admitted.
“Gymnastics got to be a lot for me,” she added. “It was going to be 14 hours a week and that was going to be too much once I started middle school.”
Schumaker took to running though. She ran track and cross country.
“Track was a different sport for me and I wanted to try it. When I did, I loved it so much that I dropped everything else,” she explained. “I was becoming good, too, so I focused on track.”
Litwinovich noticed her natural abilities immediately.
“Melana is one of the most athletic kids that I have ever coached,” he said. “She literally could excel at anything. She would try every event if we let her.”
Litwinovich allowed Schumaker to pole vault because he knew she would earn points for the team.
Initially she was reluctant.
“I just didn’t want to do it,” she said. “I wanted to do the other events like running and long jump. I really didn’t know much about it.
“To be honest, I didn’t like it at first but once I started practicing and getting good at it, I enjoyed it a lot. People also kept telling me I would be good at it, so I thought I would stick with it.”
Through practice, Schumaker has improved from being a fifth-place finisher in the district last year to being the favorite to win the WPIAL title when the championships are held Wednesday at Slippery Rock University. Top qualifiers advance to the PIAA Championships set for May 27-28 at Shippensburg University.
In addition to her normal school workouts, Schumaker attends pole vault practices twice a week. She focuses on her approaches and her turn, which she says is the hardest part of vaulting, especially since she doesn’t twist like she should.
Nevertheless, Litwinovich has high hopes for her.
“Our expectations for her are to win a WPIAL title and then place in the top three at the state meet,” he said. “Melanie is really in a good spot right now and I expect that she will continue to vault even higher.”
Schumaker has used her talents in other ways to take the Lions to new heights. Her jumping and relay legs have helped South Fayette win a section title as well as participate in the WPIAL team championships for the second consecutive year.
Schumaker won the long jump at the Baldwin Invitational with a leap of 17-5. Her PR, however, is 18-3. She was the silver medalist at the SF Invitational but ran the second leg on the winning 400-meter relay unit that included Dea Monz, Amanda Marquis and Olivia Renk.
Schumaker, who has also run a personal best time of 25.69 in the 200-meter dash this spring, was a member of SF’s 2021 WPIAL and PIAA championship 400-meter relay unit that included Amy Allen, who is now at Duquesne University. The group also competed at the national outdoor championships held last summer in Oregon.
“We had some big shoes to fill with Amy graduating but I feel good about our relay. We’ve run well this year but we have some things to tweak.
“The hope is to win the WPIALs. That is the goal. We have a good chance and then obviously try for a state title. It’s a good unit. We are all pretty fast and we are close friends that work well together.”
Schumaker is not the only local athlete who could win a pole vault title at the WPIAL Championships. Waynesburg’s Andrew Layton has the top height in the district this spring among Class 2A boys. Layton finished third in the event last year.
Layton’s teammate, Dawson Fowler, has the district’s best triple jump in Class 2A and also qualified in the javelin. He was sixth in the triple jump and eighth in the javelin a year ago.
Who is she: South Fayette senior track standout who holds school records in pole vault and 4×100 relay.
Parents: Mike and Dawn. Both were standout scholastic athletes. Mike played football and baseball and competed in golf and track in New York while Dawn played volleyball and softball at Baldwin.
Siblings: Delaney. She is an eight-grade track star, competing in hurdles and the 400-meter dash. With a P.R. of 1:04, she has already beaten her sister’s best time.
College choice: Youngstown State
Major: Health and physical education
Activities: Yearbook, MiniThon and honors business.
Favorite athlete: Emma Coburn
Color: Pink. “I just like pastel colors.”
Food: Pasta
Guilty pleasure: A banana-flavored treat from Wu’s Shaved Ice before a meet.
TV series: Selling Sunset or Grey’s Anatomy
Dream vacation: Going to the beach
Dream destination: Bora Bora or Europe
With whom would you like to have dinner: American-born Swedish pole vaulter Armand Gustav “Mondo” Duplantis. “He’s the world record holder. Just to talk to him would be cool.”
In 15 years I will: “hopefully be teaching and coaching somewhere.”