WHAT WILL HE DO FOR AN ENCORE?
Ben McGown is the back to-back district champion in the pole vault. Can the senior make it three-in-a row?
“I’ve been training hard for this season,” said McGown. “I drive up to College Station three times a week for pole vault practice at my club team (Mac Vault) as well as lifting weights and mentally preparing before each meet. I hope to leave a legacy here at Fulshear.”
He has his sights on another PR this season. His top mark came at the 2022 Area Meet, where got over the bar at 15-feet.
“It has taken a lot of hard work and sacrifice to be able to reach the goals I’ve been able to achieve,” McGown said. “I’ve had to battle to be a two-time district champion and an area champion.
This past year it was more physical. At district, I was going over a bar to win the meet and it fell off and busted my face open. They didn’t want me to compete anymore, but I asked the trainer to give me some butterfly tape and I got back to it. In the Area Round, I injured my back in warmups but pushed through and came out with a double PR and a gold medal.”
That kind of toughness may have been bolstered through his time spent playing safety for the Fulshear Football team, which advanced three rounds in the UIL postseason this past fall.
“Playing football and doing track always gives me an opportunity to compete,” he said. “That is something we pride ourselves with. At Fulshear, we always compete to produce relentless athletes. So, it helped me as a track athlete even when my jumps aren’t perfect or the conditions are bad, to just compete and come out on top. I hope that when people see me at track meets, they know I’m serious because I’m from the ‘Dirty F’.”
McGown will be attending Baylor University at the conclusion of this semester, not as an athlete but as a student. With that in mind, he intends to give it his all this spring.
“I hope to leave a legacy that anyone can make it, if they work hard,” said McGown. “I’m not anything special, but my work ethic is. I am relentless and I want people to see that if the short guy from Fulshear can do it, then they can too. But more than just me, I want to leave an imprint on my teammates and coaches that I didn’t get myself to where I am, God did. He gets all the glory, not me.”
