He accelerated down the lane. Planted the stick in the ground. It bent backward, so close to a 90 degree angle it looked like it would snap. You can almost hear the loud crack, imagine shards of fiberglass splintering into the air— but it didn’t happen. All of a sudden, there was a blue and white blur blasting upward, narrowly gliding over a horizontal bar almost 19 feet up in the air. As his torso made brief contact with the bar, it dangerously wobbled and a hushed silence permeated the packed stadium.
But the bar stayed in place.
Simen Guttormsen landed on the mat and bounced right back up with his fist pumped in the air. The crowd went crazy. Personal record, facility record, ACC record: That’s how you win an NCAA championship.
Friday, two Blue Devils competed at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in Virginia Beach, Va. Graduate thrower Christian Johnson placed ninth with a throw of 22.47m, securing second-team All America honors. Pole vaulter Guttormsen cleared a personal best 5.71m to become the second-ever Blue Devil man to bring home an individual NCAA indoor championship.
“It's been 10 years since the last time we won one,” head coach Shawn Wilbourn said Sunday. “That just shows how difficult they are to win.”
Guttormsen began the day calm, clearing the starting height of 5.36m on his first attempt. From there, he passed on the second height — the sole competitor to trust himself to do so. Within two attempts each, he cleared the next three levels, holding onto his calm as the other vaulters began to fail out and trickle away.
With the bar raised to 5.71m, only four men remained: Guttormsen and seniors Kobe Babin, Hunter Garretson and Kyle Rademeyer of South Florida, Akron and South Alabama, respectively. It was anyone’s game. Babin was in high spirits; he’d just scored a massive personal best to get to this point. And with the highest season marks of the four, Garretson or Radmeyer were the most likely, on paper, to win.
“It was pretty packed … it was hard to hear, and it was a great environment,” Wilbourn said.
As the pressure mounted, Guttormsen took his first attempt and failed. He’d never jumped this high before indoors. After Garretson and Radmeyer failed their first attempts too, they chose to pass — saving themselves for the next height. With two missed jumps in a row, Babin followed suit. But not Guttormsen.
Having nothing to lose, the Norwegian native took to the runway, sending it without hesitation. With a solid plant, he vaulted up high, narrowly clearing the bar at 5.71m. After setting an ACC record of 5.67m en route to a conference gold last week, Guttormsen had done it again, this time with an enormous personal best.
Wilbourn didn’t mince his words: “Simen is incredible,” he said.
The bar was (literally) raised yet again and the four men had another go. Yet none of them were able to clear the ambitious 5.76m, so with the highest vault of the competition, Guttormsen became the 2025 NCAA pole vault champion.
After Guttormsen’s third place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championship last year, his win wasn’t out of the blue. Still, the difference between bronze and gold is significant, and Wilbourn credits it to the strength of the program that includes other athletes, like Johnson.
“Every event it’s a battle, it's a fight,” Wilbourn said. “And [Christian] gave it his all and he came close.”
In the last indoor meet of his collegiate career, Johnson left with a ninth-place finish and second team All-American honors. He landed just 0.24m away from becoming a first team All-American, an honest result for someone who came in as the 14th seed. It caps off an impressive season of school records and an ACC silver medal for the graduate. Soon, Johnson will take his talents to the hammer throw as he competes one last time for Duke this outdoor season. Wilbourn, for one, looks forward to it.
“We’re more of an outdoor team,” he said.
He’s not wrong. The Blue Devils do have a strong presence in outdoor-specific events like the javelin, discus, hammer throw and 400m hurdles. They also have a number of redshirted athletes who will come out to compete. Last year, the Duke women won the ACC Outdoor Championship.
In two weeks, the Blue Devils will kick off the outdoor season at N.C. State’s Raleigh Relays.
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