Junior's preparation led to vault success

During his three years on the men's track team, junior Dino Efthimiou has become one of the team's rising stars and has enjoyed success during this indoor season. \nEfthimiou will travel to the University of Arkansas this weekend to challenge the nation's top pole-vaulters at the NCAA men's indoor championships.\nHe will find out if his preparation has paid off and if he's ready for the spotlight. Coach Marshall Goss said Efthimiou's progress during the past few years will allow him to score points in Arkansas.\n"Dino is very confident and he's done everything that he needs to do to get better, and he's gotten better," Goss said. "Not only has he gotten better, but he's gotten consistent, and that just speaks for him." \nBut it has not been a walk in the park for the junior. In Efthimiou's first outdoor season, he got hurt in the third meet of the season and was forced to redshirt the season. \nSince then, Efthimiou has been making improvements on his performances. He improved his personal best by nine inches from last year. Goss said a vaulter is making big strides if he improves by nine or 10 inches every year.\nTo improve on these great heights, Efthimiou has worked closely with Goss. \n"He has converted speed on the runway into a form off the runway," Goss said. "He's worked on things across the board like his work ethic and strength. He had a good background in high school and he just took off with that and kept going."\nThe effort paid off. \nEfthimiou provisionally qualified for the NCAA championship in the pole vault for the second time this season at the Big Ten championship, and improved his career-best to 5.37 meters. His mark stood up and now stands third on IU's all-time list in the event. \nEven more impressive is the fact that he is the first IU pole-vaulter to qualify for the NCAA championships since six-time All-American Mark Buse did so in 1995.\nEfthimiou achieved his goal after last outdoor season's heartbreak, where he narrowly missed a trip to NCAAs. \n"It was a goal, but you never know where you'll end up," Efthimiou said. "After last outdoor season, we thought I had a chance to go to the Nationals for this indoor season because I provisionally qualified for outdoor, but it wasn't good enough to go."\nFriend and fellow vaulter junior Ian Curry said he has watched Efthimiou develop during the past few seasons especially this indoor season.\n"All year he has been really focused on going high and getting to nationals, which has been his goal all season," Curry said. "He's been going for it at every meet, and he finally got it at Big Tens, which is the place you want to do it. He's motivated and dedicated to getting his goals"