Elite Burroughs High athletes moving on to Ivy League schools is becoming a trend.
Pole vaulter Eli Gault-Crabb, who is the one of the top returners in the nation, has committed to Cornell University.
Gault-Crabb joins volleyball player Kade McGovern, also from the class of 2021, who has committed to Harvard. Emily Virtue, who graduated from Burroughs in 2018, is a member of the Columbia University cross country and track teams.
“I built a really good relationship with the coach. He coaches very similar to coach Brooks (Morris). Right off the bat, just from talking to him over the phone, I felt it is where I want to be,” Gault-Crabb said of pole vault coach Derick Hinch, who is also originally from California. “It is also an Ivy League. I didn’t want to focus completely on athletics. A degree from an Ivy League (school) is really nice.”
Last year Gault-Crabb was one of just 13 vaulters in the nation to clear 16 feet before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season. Just two of those who jumped higher are still in high school.
“At least I hit my marks before everything shut down, which was nice,” Gault-Crabb said.
Gault-Crabb jumped 16 feet on February 29 in the Trevor Habberstad Invitational at Canyon High in Canyon Country.
“It was my last meet. Who knows what I would have jumped. I’m confident in myself that I would have beaten the school record,” said Gault-Crabb, who had a 4.6 grade point average last year. “I was only a junior.”
The Burroughs school record is 16-4 ¾, set by Esa Sallinen, a foreign exchange student from Finland, in 1994.
With no certainty that he will be able to compete at the high school level again, Gault-Crabb can only keep his fingers crossed.
“It is very slim,” he said of the chances to compete for Burroughs again. “At the end of the day I’m going to be disappointed, but I can’t control it. But that’s not the end goal. The end goal is developing through college.”
Gault-Crabb qualified for the California state meet as a sophomore, but got injured and elected to let another vaulter take his place, thinking he had two more years to go.
“I’m projected to win CIF and possibly be top-3 in state,” he said if there is a 2021 season.
But Gault-Crabb’s rise has been outstanding through working with Burroughs graduate Brooks Morris as his private coach. Brooks Morris is the son of Ron Morris, also a Burroughs grad, and the 1960 Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault.
“I jumped 10 and then I went to coach Brooks to train with him and it was like instant. I went 10-6 freshman year and sophomore year I went 15-3,” Gault-Crabb recalled.
While he waits to see if there is a season or not, Gault-Crabb is preparing as if he will compete.
“It is tough, but I’m handling it,” he said. “I still do vault once in a while. I won’t lose it. It will always be there.”
