It was an improbable take off for a pole vaulter, but senior track and field member Paul Panning didn't let that stop him from clearing huge heights.
As a freshman walk-on, not many thought Panning would end up becoming a star pole vaulter. This year's assistant coach B.J. McKay was a junior pole vaulter when Panning arrived and said he remembered the first time he saw Panning.
"The thing I think about first is seeing this squirelly freshman kid come in, and I'm like, 'Oh God,'" McKay said. "I was a bigger pole vaulter, and this little wormy cross country-looking dude walks up and says, 'I want to pole vault.'
"I'm just like who the heck is your recruiting coach, this is terrible."
While Panning wasn't recruited by anyone, it turns out he would have been a good investment. He became a two-time All-American, won two Mid-American Conference Championships and ended his career holding both the indoor and outdoor school records in the pole vault.
"It's just one of those stories of a 14-foot (vaulter) walk-on athlete that took advantage of the opportunities he had," former-head coach Jim Sprecher said. "That level of improvement you rarely see."
THE JOURNEY
Panning was a three-sport athlete at Concordia Lutheran High School in Fort Wayne. However, pole vaulting wasn't in the mix until his junior year.
After spending his first two seasons in track and field as a distance runner, Panning was still on the reserve team and wanted more. So one day at practice when he looked across the track and saw pole vaulters, he said he decided maybe he could do that.
"I'm just like, 'that does not seem to hard,' so I just kind of came over one day and said, 'hey, I'd like to try it out and see if I can earn my way on varsity,'" Panning said.
Lance Hoffman, Panning's high school coach, said he remembers him asking about pole vaulting like it was yesterday.
"He said, 'coach, I think I can pole vault,'" Hoffman said. "To be honest, he wasn't a very good runner so we said go ahead and just don't get hurt."
After never touching a pole in his life, Panning cleared 8 feet on his first attempt in practice. By the end of his junior season at Concordia, he was already going above 10 feet.
He later reached 11 feet on his first vault in practice his senior year and ended up vaulting 14 feet toward the end of his high school career. Hoffman said he was a natural and that he could tell Panning enjoyed vaulting.
"It's just an unbelievable thing," Hoffman said. "He's my one (athlete) that has done something from out of no where."
Because Panning had already decided he was going to attend Ball State, Hoffman wrote a letter to former-head coach Jim Sprecher asking if he thought Panning would fit on the team. The program at the time was in need of some pole vaulters, so Sprecher invited Panning to the team.
The team did have one good vaulter in McKay, who was close to breaking the school record when Panning arrived.
While McKay and Panning competed against each other for two seasons, McKay also helped coach Panning during that time.
"He came every day and didn't say a whole lot and just kind of soaked in information kind of like a sponge," McKay said. "I'd just tell him (what to change) and just immediately he'd start doing it right.
"I'm like wait a second, this kid might have a little more to him than I had originally thought."
Every meet Panning's freshman year, McKay said he remembers he just kept on clearing higher and higher bars.
"That's when I knew that this kid's career was going to be special, and my time at Ball State and my chance to take this record was fleeting," McKay said. "I'm like all right I've got to do it quick because this kid is going to slaughter everything I did."
After posting a vault of 14 feet, 7 1/4 inches during the indoor season, Panning had a season-best mark of 15 feet, 11 inches at the MAC Championships to place seventh.
"It was just amazing for me," Panning said. "I just couldn't believe that progression and almost at that point was already wondering, 'if I've done this much in a year, how much more can I go?'"
Panning thought he might have hit a wall, though, during his sophomore season. He didn't feel physically well enough, and that restricted his progress. He only improved 2 inches, posting a season-best mark of 16 feet, 1 inch.
After spending a summer vaulting in a few competitions, Panning came back and was able to keep improving his junior season, just like he had his freshman year. Panning had gone from a jump of 8 feet his junior year in high school to getting championships and school records.
"It wasn't like I was working up; it was like giant leaps instead of baby steps," Panning said.
THE RECORDS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS
During Panning's junior season, McKay was no longer a teammate but still remained with the team as a student coach for the pole vaulters.
McKay was able to get both the indoor and outdoor school record before he graduated. However, Panning was able to break them both his junior season, just as McKay had predicted.
During the indoor season, Panning vaulted 16 feet, 7 inches to break McKay's record. He did the same thing with the outdoor record later in the season with a height of 17 feet 4 1/2 inches.
"I was surprised that he took it so well," Panning said. "He was just pumped to see me do it."
"I was happier when Paul broke it than when I did," McKay said. "It was something I knew was going to get broken anyway so it wasn't something I really cherished."
With both the indoor and outdoor record, all that was left for Panning to do was keep improving those marks and win championships.
"I knew right after he broke it that was only the tip of the iceberg," McKay said. "I knew he had big things coming."
Among those big things was his first MAC Championship. After finishing second in the MAC during the indoor season, Panning won his first MAC crown during the outdoor season with a mark of 17 feet, 2 3/4 inches.
Panning had earned an NCAA Regional meet qualifying mark earlier in the season and tied for fourth at the event with a vault of 16 feet, 11 inches, earning him a trip to the NCAA Championships.
At the championships. he cleared a height of 16 feet, 10 3/4 inches to finish in a tie for eighth place. With the finish, he earned All-American honors as one of the top eight finishers.
He followed that by a senior season, which saw him get close to the 18-feet mark. Toward the end of the season, Panning started to vault even better and had a personal-best mark of 17 feet, 11 3/4 inches at the NCAA Regional meet, once again qualifying him for the NCAA Championships.
Panning capped off his career at the NCAA Championships with a vault of 17 feet, 8 inches to finish in 10th place. He became a two-time All-American as well because two of the finishers above him were international students, making him the last one in the field to earn All-American honors.
THE COMPETITOR
Panning was able to accomplish all that he did because of the attitude he carried into every practice and meet.
"He wears Ball State on his chest like the guys that go to Tennessee and LSU and USC," McKay said. "He just doesn't humble down to anybody."
"I like to be that guy where the opponents will come into the meet and see me and be like, 'he's a good vaulter, and it's going to take a lot to beat him today,'" Panning said.
When it came down to the big meets, Panning said he didn't want to set a record, he just wanted to beat the other guys in the field.
"The bar was secondary to Paul," McKay said. "He just wanted the hardware at every meet he went to."
During all those times of wanting to win, McKay said he remembers Panning as someone who never came up short of doing his best.
"Through everything that we've been through together and that's been thrown at the track team and everything else, it's never made him falter," McKay said. "He never took a step backwards when a lot of guys did."
Part of the reason Panning was able to make it through everything was the support around him. Besides the coaches, his family, friends and girlfriend have always been there for him, he said.
"They never doubted me, always had confidence in me and supported me in whatever I did or whatever I tried," Panning said.
Panning's girlfriend, Kristin Schafer, would always try to do something special for him before each meet, such as bake cookies or get him balloons. This year before regionals, Schafer sent Panning a bouquet of balloons.
She has also been putting together a scrapbook of newspaper articles and pictures that tell Panning's story.
THE END
As the last athlete to compete in an event for the Ball State men's track and field team, Panning and his story will be remembered as the face of the program.
"If I can get out of regionals, I represent those 50 guys and I represent all of the previous athletes throughout the past seven decades of track," Panning said before he competed in the regional meet this year.
Panning said he remembers when he first heard the news of the cuts, and even though it didn't directly affect him, because he was going to be finished anyway, it was still hard.
"It's just like your stomach sinks, and your heart sinks," Panning said. "It's just one of those feelings like someone died almost.
"Something was stolen from us, that's what it felt like, and you can't get it back no matter what you do. We tried to fight it, I mean it's just a pointless fight, that's what it came down too."
"It wasn't necessarily the program being cut but the way it was done," Schafer said about how Panning felt. "They felt like they didn't matter or that track wasn't important enough to stick around."
From now on, though, when people look back on the track program, they'll remember the last team in the history of the program, Panning said.
"This is the Ball State track team that everyone will always remember," Panning said. "When everyone thinks of Ball State track from now on, it's going to be that group of 50."
Among that group of 50 individuals, Panning symbolizes what the entire program is all about.
"What drives us through and what makes up credible for the pride we have in the program, the pride we have in our performances, is how much work we put into it," McKay said. "Nothing was handed to any of us; we came out here and earned it. I think that Paul really does represent that, and I hope that that's how our team is remembered."
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