First, Jackson Lubin looked at his feet.
He wanted his steps to be in the right order and spaced perfectly when he took off down the runway.
Next, Lubin turned his eyes to the right to see where the pole was situated by his side. He checked and double checked to make sure his hands were properly positioned on the pole. He made sure his right hand was near his hip and that his left hand balanced the pole at the correct angle.
While the dozen or so other pole vaulters chatted with one another in the warm-up line on April 14 at New Trier’s nonconference meet, Lubin spent most of his time going over his fundamentals by himself.
“There are a lot of things to think about,” Lubin said. “It’s a lot to take in.”
A senior at North Shore Country Day, Lubin took up pole vaulting for the first time this season. On New Trier’s Winnetka campus, Lubin was competing in his first meet.
“You fix one issue, and there are 20 more waiting,” Lubin said. “But it’s starting to make sense. I just need to execute.”
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From a young age, Lubin, 18, tried his best to solve problems.
Tasked with clearing the family’s dinner table certain nights, an 8-year-old Lubin re-configured one of his remote-controlled robots to carry the dirty dishes, utensils and glasses to the sink, according to his father, Tom Lubin. Jackson Lubin attached a platform above the wheels that was as tall as the kitchen table, so all he had to do was slide everything onto it before driving it to the sink.
“He’s always had that engineering mind-set,” Tom Lubin said. “He’s always been very analytical.”
Jackson Lubin, an Evanston resident, laughed when he was reminded of his chore-assisting robot, which he said didn’t make the job faster.
“My mom only used plastic plates when it was my turn to clear the table,” he said.
When he got older, Jackson Lubin gained an interest in rockets, both launching them and building them. Last summer, he designed and constructed a 25-foot, 270-pound rocket. He said it took months to build, and he even created his own aerospace composite fin material that was strong enough to handle the motor’s thrust yet light enough to improve the aerodynamics.
“I’ve always been fascinated by building things,” Jackson Lubin said.
Tom Lubin asked his son one time if he’d rather be an astronaut or someone working on the ground as an engineer. Jackson Lubin never hesitated with his answer.
“He always wanted to be the engineer,” Tom Lubin said.
Once the rocket was operational, Jackson Lubin and a crew of seven loaded up a van and drove to a remote cornfield in Argonia, Kansas. Jackson Lubin said he had to get special approval from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation for the mission.
But the rocket only made it a few feet into the air, Jackson Lubin said, before crashing back to the earth. Jackson Lubin determined a faulty seal was to blame.
“I had poured my heart into this project, but setbacks can happen in any activity, especially rocketry when one pushes the envelope,” he said. “I was disappointed but still determined to keep trying.”
Lubin, who is a licensed high-power rocketeer, said his knowledge of the discipline is a big reason why he got accepted into M.I.T., where he plans to study aerospace engineering.
“Ever since sixth grade, it’s been my dream school,” he said. “I have good grades and test scores, but I think the rocketry is what helped me get in there.”
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Jackson Lubin has been on North Shore’s track and field team since his sophomore year, mostly competing as a sprinter and middle distance runner. One of his goals in high school has been to qualify for the state meet.
After last year’s Class 1A sectionals, Jackson Lubin poured over the results and concluded that he might have a reasonable chance in the pole vault. Of the 14 sectionals, the one at Lisle, where North Shore competed, had the lowest mark for state qualification. The second and final qualifier at Lisle advanced by clearing 9 feet, 6 inches. The next lowest automatic qualifier was 10-6 at two sites.
But North Shore track and field coach Patrick McHugh wasn’t going to entertain Jackson Lubin’s wishes about pole vaulting until he was convinced he was serious about it. Jackson Lubin and two teammates — seniors Ian Talty and Tonya Piergies — attended a one-day clinic at the University of Wisconsin over winter break.
On Jackson Lubin’s first effort, he said he slammed his face on the pole as he went over the bar. As the day-long session wore on, he said the three of them got exponentially better.
“We were by far the worst ones there,” Jackson Lubin said. “It was a lot harder than I thought, and I didn’t even know how to hold the pole. We did a bunch of drills and kind of got the hang of it by the end.”
Back in Winnetka, though, Jackson Lubin was at a disadvantage because North Shore doesn’t own any poles and doesn’t have any track and field facilities on campus. Starting on Sundays in January, McHugh has chaperoned Jackson Lubin and his teammates to Chicago’s Young to practice. McHugh has been close to Young girls cross country coach Bob Geiger for many years.
“It has become easier, but we have a lot to learn,” Jackson Lubin said.
At New Trier, Jackson Lubin received some tips from Megan Mussano, a pole vault coach for the Trevians. She showed him the proper way to approach the pit and hold his pole, which was a loaner from Young.
“You have to do this so many times that you aren’t thinking about anything,” she told him.
Jackson Lubin easily cleared 6 feet on his first attempt. On his next run, he broke the program record of 6-6, held by Zach March, by clearing 7 feet (Talty cleared 7 feet, too).
The bar then was raised to 8 feet. Jackson Lubin made it over on all three of his attempts, but he knocked down the bar each time with his pole on the way down. Still, he was encouraged after his day ended.
“I think I learned a lot,” he said. “I am doing it more correctly now. This is a good starting point for me.”
Although Jackson Lubin said he doesn’t apply his math and science background to pole vaulting, McHugh and Talty said he does.
McHugh said he believes Jackson Lubin is drawn to the sport’s complexity.
“It appears that way to me, at least,” McHugh said. “He enjoys all the various parts that go into it. He has the mind for it. I just wish I had him for another year.”
Talty has known Jackson Lubin since sophomore year, and the two take AP Statistics together this semester.
“He thinks about things very scientifically,” Talty said. “But sports are very visceral, and you have to have a feel for them, too. There is a mixture of the both with him, even if he doesn’t admit it.”
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One of Jackson Lubin’s classes in his final semester is Applied Physics and Engineering. On April 10, he and his three classmates were charged with breaking down a disposable camera and analyzing why each part is built the way it is and why it’s positioned where it is inside the camera.
There was a lot of interaction between Jackson Lubin, his classmates — seniors Gabe Biggs, Nick David and Jack Kaplan — and teacher Dr. Jerry Rietveld during the period.
“I want them to comment on the design of it,” Rietveld said. “It’s a highly mechanical contraption, and I wanted them to see how everything fit together. Things are where they are for a reason. What is the mind-set involved in such a design?”
Before coming to North Shore, Rietveld was a science teacher at Pope in Marietta, Georgia. He also coached pole vaulting for five years at the school. While he never has talked to Jackson Lubin at length about pole vaulting, Rietveld said his student certainly must think about the science of the sport on some level.
During the meet at New Trier, Jackson Lubin deconstructed the parts of pole vaulting similar to the disposable camera.
“I always approached pole vaulting entirely from a physics perspective,” Rietveld said. “There is kinetic energy when running, then elastic potential energy and finally gravitational potential energy. I wonder if there is some experimentation going on with his subconscious.”
Jackson Lubin didn’t dismiss the physics associated with pole vaulting, but he said he tries to disconnect the two when he competes. To him, it’s an athletic endeavor, nothing more.
“The math and science of it, I put all of that out of my head,” he said. “It was something I thought would be cool to try. It’s been great, and I love it. It’s one of those events that I really have a lot of fun doing.”
Twitter: @harnesspreps
