PHOTO COURTESY OF Amanda Benninghoff
Council Rock South’s Amanda Benninghoff has decided to continue his athletic and academic endeavors at University of North Carolina.
By Mike Gibson
For the Times
To borrow a phrase made popular in a Bill Cosby commercial, Council Rock South’s Amanda Benninghoff could have gone to college anywhere.
She chose the University of North Carolina.
The explanation was the main campus, located in Chapel Hill, reminded her of home.
“The town reminds me of the one I live in, Newtown,” Benninghoff said. “It looks a lot like Newtown. It’s a big campus, but with a small-town feel, and I saw myself there.”
There was a small-town feel to some of her other choices. Wake Forest and William and Mary were on her final list, but there also was the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt (Nashville), so that helped narrow the choice down.
“Wake Forest was OK, but the reason I didn’t pick it was because it didn’t have as much of the school spirit I felt at North Carolina,” she said. “I didn’t get as comfortable a feel there as I did in [Chapel Hill].”
Chapel Hill’s gain is Newtown’s loss and Council Rock South’s as well because Benninghoff is in the final month of a spectacular pole-vaulting career for the Golden Hawks.
The PIAA District One championships and the State Championships still are ahead, soon to be followed by graduation.
She’s finished third in the event at the Penn Relays with a jump of 12 feet, 1 inch, and all season long she’s eyed the school record of 12 feet, 10 inches accomplished by Tory Worthen. Emily Savage of Weston (Conn.) won the event with a 13–1. Emily King of Oakdale (Va.) was second (12–5).
Still, being third in perhaps the highest profile track and field meet in the United States is an outstanding accomplishment.
Benninghoff has done a 12–10 3/4-inch jump at last year’s New Balance Invitational, but since that was outside of school competition doesn’t qualify as a school record.
“The sky is the limit for Amanda,” her coach, Deric Lynch, said. “We’ve kind of had a tradition in pole vaulting here. My assistant, Ken Worthen, was the head coach at Bensalem and when his daughter, Tory, got involved in pole vaulting, he asked me if he could come around and hang out and help with the coaching.
“He didn’t want to be a head coach anymore but he showed me how to be a head coach and coached Tory to the school record and now he’s continuing the tradition with Amanda.”
Benninghoff gives Worthen a lot of the credit in her development.
“He’s an amazing coach,” she said. “I owe everything I do because of him. He calms my nerves down before big meets and he’s always pushing me to get Tory’s record. That’s what he wants. As soon as she graduated, I was the first one in the door and he has done everything he can to help make me do my best.”
The Golden Hawks, who lost during the regular season only to powerhouse Pennsbury, are well-known for their strength in the field events. This year, the team maintained its reputation.
“That has a lot to do with our twins, Shannon and Allison Taub,” Lynch said. “Allison threw a 35–9 shot put, and they are both 5–3 high jumpers, and Benninghoff is a 12–9 or better pole vaulter so we get a lot of our points out of our field part of the team.
“We’re a very young team. We have only nine seniors and the majority of our point-scorers are sophomores and juniors. ”
Lynch really believes that North Carolina is getting the best of Benninghoff.
“She’s a 13-plus pole vaulter, I’m confident of that,” he said. “I knew she was a little disappointed she didn’t break the record earlier, but her best performances are ahead.”
“The coach said if I can do a handstand, I’d be good at it,” Benninghoff said. “That’s the natural start to the event and then you can’t be afraid of it (the height required to clear the bar) and I wasn’t afraid of it and the combination of those two things, plus the desire to get better, made it fun.”
Meanwhile, as soon as this season ends, Benninghoff is setting her mind on preparing to go to Carolina.
“People always told me when you pick the school you want, you’ll know, and I did with North Carolina,” she said. “I met another vaulter, she was older, but she was easy to get along with and I felt comfortable with her and I could see more doing what she did there.”
