Bloomington’s Ifft lives up to legacy with state title, U-High excels in move to 3A
- Jonathan Michel
- May 24
- 5 min read
CHARLESTON — When the pole vault bar was at 11 feet, 11 inches, Bloomington’s Claudia Ifft made a wish.
The Purple Raiders senior was in uncharted territory and never needed to rely on a third attempt to clear a bar all season until then.
She did, and five jumps later, she became a Class 3A state champion, fulfilling a lifelong dream and matching a legacy set her sister Lilliana, who was Bloomington’s last girls state champion in the Class 3A pole vault in 2021.
“I felt all the years of work and the support of all my siblings and parents and my coaches accumulate,” Ifft said her emotions after clearing the final height. “I felt like I had made it and it felt amazing.”
Ifft finishes her prep career as a four-time all-stater after taking sixth as a freshman and fifth in both her sophomore and junior years. She picked up the sport in sixth grade and has never looked back.
Seeing three of her siblings win state titles helped motivate her too. Along with her sister Lilliana, Ifft's brother, Chandlar, won a Class 2A state title in 2019 with Prairie Central. Both Lillliana and Chandler currently compete at Baylor University. Ifft's older sister, Kassadee, won the 2015 Class 2A state title with Prairie Central before going to compete at Notre Dame collegiately.
“This sport is unlike any other sport out there, it’s just so unique and to say you’re a vaulter is such a cool thing to say,” Ifft said.
“What’s kept me going is, honestly, the pressure from my family,” she added. “I wanted to be a state champion too so I’m glad I could do that.”
Ifft, an Illinois Wesleyan signee, came in as one of the favorites with a season-best height of 12 feet, 7.5 inches. She cleared 10’11, 11’5 and 11’9 with no problem before running into trouble at 11’11.
“I was feeling the nerves, feeling the angst but that was for sure the most stressed I’ve been this entire season but we got through it,” Ifft said.
After clearing that height on her final attempt, she cleared the next four heights on her first attempts as every competitor, except for crosstown counterpart Caty Minton from Normal U-High, crumbled.
Minton struck out at 12 feet, 7.5 inches to leave Ifft with nothing to do but set a new personal best. She achieved that goal by clearing 12’10 on her second attempt.
For Ifft, Saturday’s performance proved that even though she had accumulated numerous indoor, Intercity, conference and sectional titles, there’s always a loftier height and goals that she can aim for — and achieve.
“That really proved to me that there was more in the tank left and there’s growth still,” Ifft said. “I was at a plateau for a long time so it got super hard to keep going but that just proved that that work I was doing wasn’t for nothing, there’s still more in there.”
Minton makes statement reaching 3A pole vault podium
Bloomington/Normal breeds pole vaulters but until this year, Normal U-High’s Caty Minton wasn’t part of that conversation. The Normal U-High junior ran the 200 and the 400 in her underclass years, several years after a brief experiment with pole vaulting in seventh grade.
While Ifft may have ended the year as Central Illinois’ biggest winner, Minton made a strong case to the the state’s biggest breakout performer after finishing second to her crosstown counterpart in her first full season competing in the event.
“It’s just a blessing to make it here and make it past state qualifying obviously,” Minton said. “Coming here helped me get the adrenaline so I feel ready to go and hit some big bars.”
Minton quit competitive cheer in the winter and prepared for the indoor track season next to the Flying Dragons Pole Vault club, where she trained during her middle school stint. The Pioneers’ junior figured she’d give it a go and now has fallen in love with it.
“It kind of started a little bit as a hobby and it turned into something,” Minton said. “Now, it’s like my main thing and I love it so much.”
Minton cleared four of her first six heights on the first attempt, including 12 feet, 1.5 inches which set a new personal-best. However, she wasn’t done and cleared 12’3.5 and 12’5.5 on her third attempt both times to go down to the wire with Ifft.
Her final height of 12’5.5 was the third best mark by any pole vaulter in the state this season and comfortably surpassed her goal coming into the weekend.
“I just focused on staying tight to my pole and taking feedback and it paid off and I’m really excited,” Minton said.
“I had been really wanting to hit 12 feet and I had the support of my family there and I was able to grind it out and get through it.”
“Magical day” for Pioneers team after promotion to largest class
Winning back-to-back Class 2A state titles in 2024 and 2025 meant that Normal U-High, a non-boundaried school of just over 600 students, was subjected to the IHSA’s success formula and automatically bumped up to the Class 3A.
The move up didn’t keep the Pioneers off the team podium as many different athletes put up points in several different events and finished with 50 points to take third place. It marked Normal U-High’s ninth top-3 placement at state in program history and head coach Randy Anderson believed that coming home with a trophy after getting moved up a class was an unprecedented feat.
“To my understanding, no [IHSA] team has done that in history,” Anderson said. “They’re great kids and they’ll be tougher next year.”
“It was a magical day.”
The Pioneers qualified athletes for the finals in eight different events, led by runner-up finishes from Minton in the pole vault, Abigail Jackson in the 400 (54.53) and its 4x400 relay (3:49.03). Star sprinter Hannah Safranek competed well in tough fields in the 100 meters and 100-meter hurdles, finishing fifth in the hurdles (14.36) and seventh in the 100 (12.28). The Pioneers’ 4x100 also finished fifth (46.85) and picked up points in the field with Isabella Thurston finishing fourth in the shot put (42’7) and seventh in the discus (140’1), the latter of which was one spot behind teammate MacKenzie Matejka, who threw 140’7.
“Our team never has dominated with one athlete, it’s been a whole group of athletes, from field events, from vaulting, from throwing, from jumping, from sprinting,” Anderson said. “And that’s what we had to do today.”
Elsewhere in Class 3A, Normal West sophomore Ryan Temples turned heads with a runner-up finish in the long jump with a distance of 18’8 and Wildcats’ teammate Ayva Davis took eighth in the 100 hurdles by crossing the line in 15.13. Dunlap’s Samantha Yeh took sixth in the high jump with a mark of 5’5 and Eva Deener finished 12th in the shot put with a mark of 38’6.25. Pekin’s Zoe Liedtke jumped 18’6.5 in the long jump to tie a personal best and place fourth.
Edwardsville and Homewood-Flossmoor tied for first with 76 points apiece.
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