• 

  Banks of the Wabash Festival kicks off

  The 2013 Banks of the Wabash Festival, scheduled May 23 through June 1 in Fairbanks Park, celebrates 40 years along the banks of the Wabash River, 30 under the sponsorship of the Terre Haute Parks and Recreation Department.

• 

  Banks of the Wabash Festival is more than just yearly entertainment

  Pioneers think counterintuitively. Where others see widespread apathy, they focus on the possibility for progress. In a way, the 2013 Year of the River celebration began in the 1970s.

• 

  Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys

  GRAPEVINE, Texas — In one of their most dramatic choices in a century, local leaders of the Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to ease a divisive ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted into the nation's leading youth organization.

Mark Bennett B-Sides

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• Former Sycamore Kylie Hutson releases the pole during the women's pole vault at the U.S. outdoor track and field championships in Eugene, Ore., on June 26, 2011. Hutson won the event with a jump of 15 feet, 3 inches. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

  

• Tribune-Star file/Joseph C. Garza On the way up: Indiana State pole vaulter Kylie Hutson bends the pole on her way up over the bar during the competition Saturday in the 2009 Pace Setter Invitational at Marks Field.

  

• Winner: Kylie Hutson (right) poses with Danny Tanoos after accepting the McMillan award for outstanding female athlete in 2005.

  

• Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza On top of her game: Indiana State junior Kylie Hutson is the national champion in the women's indoor pole vault, setting an Indiana State and all-time Missouri Valley Conference record with a vault of 14 feet, 3 1/4 inches.

  

• Tribune-Star file/Joseph C. Garza Raising the bar and clearing it: Indiana State's Kylie Hutson clears the bar as she competes in the pole vault Saturday during the Indiana State Track & Field Invitational at Marks Field.

  

• Tribune-Star file/Joseph C. Garza Up and over: Indiana State's Kylie Hutson vaults over the bar on her first attempt during the Pacesetter Invitational Saturday, May 2 at Marks Field.

  

• Mark Bennett

  

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June 30, 2011

MARK BENNETT: Daredevil attitude carries Kylie Hutson to new heights

Mark Bennett The Tribune-Star The Tribune Star Thu Jun 30, 2011, 09:48 AM EDT

TERRE HAUTE — Lots of people fear being upside-down. Such fright makes rollercoasters popular.

Kylie Hutson has never suffered that phobia.

“She’s always had a little bit of a daredevil in her,” said her dad, Kevin Hutson. “Anytime she had an opportunity to get upside-down, she’d do it.”

In fact, some of Kylie’s finest moments have come while inverted.

As a kid growing up in Terre Haute, it happened while climbing trees with her brother, Max. In a more formal capacity, Kylie frequently flipped as a competitive youth gymnast and tumbler, as well as in dance recitals.

And then there was last Sunday.

Toting a 12-foot pole made of a composite of carbon fiber and fiberglass, Kylie sprinted down a runway in a stadium at the University of Oregon, wedged the pole into a small, V-shaped “plant box,” bent the pole, and flung her slender, 5-foot, 5-inch body upward — feet first — toward a crossbar at an elevation nearly three times her height. She twisted over like a corkscrew at the peak, let go of the pole and smoothly cleared the bar, falling triumphantly into a cushy pad below.

Kylie soared 15 feet, 3 inches. That upside-down moment proved to be the winning women’s pole vault at the 2011 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. It gave her the title of “national champion.” No asterisk is necessary. No sub-category to account for age level or experience applies. Kylie Hutson is America’s top female pole vaulter, period. And, while such honors can be fleeting in sports, she’s enjoying it.

She’s 23 years old, a professional athlete and the best in the United States.

“Even though this is my job, I’m having fun,” Kylie said Tuesday.

She spoke by cellphone, still hundreds of miles from her hometown. Though Terre Haute is never far from her thoughts, Kylie’s travel schedule just got a whole lot busier after Sunday’s performance in Oregon. She already began living and training at Phoenix in January, after graduating from Indiana State University, where Kylie won four straight NCAA pole vault titles. She’s got a contract with Nike, and the maker of her poles, Gill Athletics of Champaign, Ill. Thanks to last weekend’s effort, she’ll journey in August to Daegu, South Korea, as a member of Team USA for the 2011 World Championships. In between, she’ll globetrot a bit more, participating in Samsung Diamond League meets for pro track athletes in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

There’s a pretty big event next year in England, too. The 2012 London Summer Olympics.

Yes, a berth in the Olympic games is a real possibility. At Eugene, Kylie out-vaulted American pole vault icon Jenn Suhr by 2 inches. While Suhr, who placed second, had been injured and was competing outdoors for the first time this year, Kylie’s win was significant. Suhr, 29, was the five-time defending national champ, the reigning silver medalist from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the U.S. record holder.

“I realized, I can compete with this girl. She’s not out of my league,” Kylie said of Suhr.

Kylie and Suhr will meet again. To make the U.S. Olympic team and earn a spot in the 2012 games, Kylie must place among the top three pole vaulters at next June’s Olympic Trials at, again, Eugene. “I have no doubt that, if she’s on that day [in the Olympic Trials], she’ll be there [in the London Summer Olympics],” said her mom, Susan Hutson.

If so, folks in Terre Haute will face a crash-course in pronouncing exotic names such as legendary pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva (of Russia) and top-ranked Fabiana Murer (of Brazil) as Kylie takes on the world. Isinbayeva won the last two Olympic gold medals in 2004 and 2008, and the past five World Championship titles. She has her own website and graces ads for Toshiba and Lady Speed Stick. Any Olympic newcomer hoping for a medal in London must, first, plan on contending with Isinbayeva.

“She’s always the one to beat,” Kylie said. “But she never gets beat.”

Then again, there’s a first time for everything. Kylie became the first female to win Vigo County’s prestigious McMillan Award twice while at Terre Haute North Vigo High School, where she learned to pole vault under Coach Mike Dason. Her dominance at ISU was groundbreaking, too. And, as a pro last weekend at Oregon, Kylie ended Suhr’s string of five straight national titles, and Suhr is one of only a handful of female pole vaulters ever to clear 16 feet. Isinbayeva is also on that lofty list.

That elite plateau is reachable, Kylie thinks. “Someday, yes, I do believe I can,” she said. “It might take a little while, but in the pole vaulting world, the more experience you have the better you get.”

Then, borrowing an old but apt cliché, she said, “I guess the sky is the limit.”

And Kylie will feel right at home as she shoots for it, upside-down.

Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

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Mark Bennett B-Sides

• Banks of the Wabash Festival is more than just yearly entertainment

  Pioneers think counterintuitively. Where others see widespread apathy, they focus on the possibility for progress. In a way, the 2013 Year of the River celebration began in the 1970s.

  May 23, 2013 5 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: After running for 28 hours straight, what’s another 5 miles?

  Some phrases can only be uttered by a few people, or none at all.

  May 9, 2013 2 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Glitches show limitations of high-stakes testing concept

  The dog ate my homework. That age-old excuse — based on a shockingly unforeseen complication — rarely works for a kid who didn’t finish yesterday’s math assignment. Yet, in a role reversal, Indiana school children, along with their teachers and administrators, are left to accept an explanation for a disruption best described as the mother of all ironies.

  May 2, 2013  

• MARK BENNETT: One step at a time to save lives

  Joan Brown.
  Remember that name.

  April 25, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Sometimes, the mere posing of questions is significant

  The era seems quaint now, almost like a fable. When people left their house doors unlocked. When the sight of a police officer in a school meant it was Career Day.

  April 18, 2013  

• MARK BENNETT: New reality steers Nashville singer to Crossroads for Historical Society concert

  People pass through the Crossroads of America for lots of reasons.
  Business trips. College campus events. Federal prison sentences. Visits with relatives. Gas pitstops.
  Or maybe a career change and a twist of fate.
  Ty Brown makes his first stop in downtown Terre Haute as the headliner of a multi-band Sweet Sensations Country Jam concert May 4 in the Ohio Building — a fundraiser for the Vigo County Historical Society.

  April 11, 2013 3 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Terre Haute barber ‘sharpens up’ customers for 50 years

  People streamed through this section of downtown Terre Haute in those days.
  “You could hardly walk by here,” John Hochhalter said, pointing toward the sidewalk outside the window.
  The bustle has faded since the early 1960s. Hochhalter remains. He’s still barbering in the same shop he and late business partner Kenny Thomas opened a half-century ago this week.

  March 21, 2013 5 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Memories, emotions rush back with announcement of new pope

  I saw a pope once.Read quickly, that sentence sounds too casual, almost as if we’d crossed paths at Home Depot. Say it slowly, though, and the significance comes through.

  March 14, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Reflections of grid success stir with Brent Anderson’s passing

  A few hundred miles away, and nearly 40 years gone by, a special game ball still occupies a fond place in Rudy Bohinc’s memories.

  March 5, 2013 3 Photos  

• Lent meets ‘The Bucket List’ in Terre Haute

  Initially, the concept might conjure images of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman jumping out of an airplane or sitting atop the Pyramids. Instead, think “Lent Meets ‘The Bucket List’ in Terre Haute.”

  March 3, 2013  

• MARK BENNETT: Never truer: Knowledge vital to narrowing ‘skills gap’

  The pillar at the gates of Faber College in the movie “Animal House” bore a wise motto, despite its tongue-in-cheek intent …

  February 28, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Great-niece to re-enact Paul Dresser’s musical legacy in Terre Haute show

  People can be forgotten. Their lives end, time passes and memories fade.
  Often, the only keepers of their legacies are family and friends, who tell and retell their stories, generation to generation.
  For Paul Dresser, his fame burned strong enough as a turn-of-the-century, million-seller songwriter to preserve bits of his public notoriety.

  February 21, 2013 4 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: An Olympic takedown

  Imagine an iconic image of American sports history erased.

  February 14, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Indiana’s ‘skills gap’

  A problem lasting decades ceases to be a “problem.” By then, the situation becomes “part of the culture.”

  February 7, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: America’s best quality of life? Indiana must address flaws, set priorities

  Just as the job interview seems smooth, the interviewer drops the question.
  “So, where do you see yourself in five years?”

  January 31, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Pondering what is meant by ‘quality of life’ to Hoosiers

  Sometimes it’s sincere. Other times, it’s sarcasm.
  You cross paths with a friend, ask how they’re doing, and they say, “Ah, just livin’ the dream.”
  Livin’ the dream. What exactly does that involve? Can it be defined?

  January 24, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: By whatever name, stomach virus still a sick story

  It’s the ugly side of the cold-and-flu season.

  January 17, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Living on the banks

  We are the Wabash.
  Really.

  January 10, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Rising young producer lands spot in Sundance Film Festival

  When a project clicks, the moment is clear.

  January 3, 2013 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Remember the 20 children lost

  Their names were listed on the screen at the front of the church on Sunday.
  Our pastor asked us to choose one and pray for their family. I selected Noah Pozner, just by chance.

  December 20, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Tasting panel to help find Champagne Velvet’s ‘million-dollar flavor’

  Rounding up enough volunteers to serve on a committee can be a struggle.

  December 6, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: Thanksgiving’s feast can be defined by either the presence of family or the family’s quest for presents

  The best gift deals will be gone by 12:01 a.m. Nov. 23.

  November 18, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: Salvation Army touches many lives

  Sometimes, the unexpected happens.

  November 15, 2012 2 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Election excellence: 30 out of 32 is pretty darn good

  Detroit car makers unveil the latest Mustangs and Corvettes on Wabash Avenue.

  November 8, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Climbing the rungs of Lincoln’s Ladder

  One crucial quality helped Abraham Lincoln become America’s greatest president.
  Courage? Political savvy? Wisdom? Moral character?

  November 1, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: Drop the needle

  Over time, excellence and nostalgia inappropriately merge in our minds.

  October 28, 2012  

• No matter the age, voting’s a part of American fabric

  The electoral karma seemed, well, unfair.

  October 25, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: A moment on the brink

  Ominous, but distant.

  October 21, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: Valley-born filmmaker influenced by roots

  Real-life stories inspire Laura Brownson.
  Even those vastly unlike her own.

  October 19, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: No debating it: Candidates have it easier than ‘forensics’ specialists

  Nightmares can jolt us awake, just before we fall off a cliff or show up for work or school unprepared.

  October 11, 2012 1 Photo  

• More Mark Bennett B-Sides Headlines

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