Photo courtesy of Chris Drummond/Marshall Independent New Ulm's Emily Pearson bites her Class AA second-place medal in the girls pole vault on Saturday at St. Michael-Albertville High School in St. Michael.

ST. MICHAEL – She’s got the school record, and now she’s got the hardware to go with it.

After soaring to the top of the New Ulm High School girls record books twice this year, Emily Pearson’s performance in the girls pole vault Saturday at the Class AA State Track and Field Meet earned her a second-place medal.

Pearson’s top vault of 11 feet, 3 inches on Saturday at St. Michael-Albertville High School wasn’t a personal best for her, but it tied her second top vault and earned her her first-ever state medal.

“It feels really good,” Pearson said. “I worked really hard for this, so it’s good to finally get what I’ve been working for. I’m really happy that I made it this far.”

Pearson, who set the girls pole vault record last season with a jump of 11-1, broke her own record this year on May 18 with an 11-3 mark. A week later at the Big South Conference Track and Field in Marshall, she broke her record again with a leap of 11-9.

While she didn’t break her record again on Saturday, her consistent approach paid off in a big way.

It’s even more impressive due to the fact that she missed qualifying for state last season and this year was her first trip. But missing the state meet was just added motivation for Pearson.

“Last year I had to work really hard to get where I was, third place [at section meet], and I really wanted to go,” Pearson said. “But this year it was so much easier to get that qualifying height, and I think that last year, just coming short helped a lot with that. I tried to work harder, get better at being consistent and getting over those higher bars, so that was probably a big reason I could get over the qualifying height during sections this year.”

Pearson qualified for this year’s state meet with a top jump of 11-2 at the section meet in Worthington on June 2.

Mankato East sophomore Rylie Hansen won the Class AA girls pole vault title with a top jump of 11-6. After Pearson failed to match that mark in her first two vaults, she passed on attempting to match it a third time and took her last attempt at 12 feet in hopes of besting Hansen.

Pearson’s back hit the pole at 12 feet, however, and she unable to set a new high. Hansen failed to pass the 12-feet mark in three attempts also, but she didn’t need it as she took the title with her top jump of 11-6.

“I had a really good technical day earlier this week,” Pearson said. “So I just tried to think back to what that felt like and tried to get over it.”

Pearson’s improvements, records and state medal this year can be attributed to several different things. But one big reason Pearson attributes her improvement to is the work put in to be consistent.

“There’s a lot of things that go into pole vault that I can change and figure out, so I just kind of got better at that,” she said.

Pearson will now turn her attention to Bethel University in St. Paul, where she will attend college and join the track and field team.

New Ulm junior James Osborne also competed Saturday in the boys high jump. After his PR mark of 6 feet, 2 inches, at the section meet last week, Osborne had a top leap of 5-10 on Saturday, tying him for 17th.

Mahtomedi’s Owen Carlson won the boys high jump with a top jump of 6-6, a Class AA state record.