From dreams to ‘what ifs’
Mooneyhan’s opportunity at reaching goals squashed
Not every girl’s wish list includes a personal pole vault pit at her house.
Cassidy Mooneyhan, however, had wanted one for years, and that wish was finally granted for the Pea Ridge senior track standout when her father Walter — a former pole vaulter at Heber Springs and Arkansas State — bought her one last summer.
“I had seen pictures of people with pole vault pits in their yard,” Mooneyhan said. “Ever since I saw that, I have begged for one and begged for one. We had been looking on the internet for somebody who wanted to sell one and what the prices were.
“At the end of my junior year, we had seen that Sheridan had theirs up for sale, so we put a bid on it. It ended up in our yard, and it was one of the best days ever.”
Now Mooneyhan — who took care of her college plans in November when she signed a national track letter of intent in with South Dakota — can practice her skills without leaving home, and it allowed her to make a stronger push toward her personal goals.
Ever since she was in the seventh grade, she wanted to clear 13 feet before she finished her high school career, and she thought she could extend that to 13’2” or even 13’6” before this spring was over. Mooneyhan wanted to take the Class 4A girls state pole vault record higher than the 12’7” mark she cleared to break it last year, and she wanted to earn All-American status as the New Balance national meet.
Those dreams ended before her track season hardly got out of the blocks, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic that eventually ended spring sports this year.
“It’s just awful,” Mooneyhan said. “I’m just incredibly blessed that I get to continue to pole vault in college, but I can’t help but think about everyone who doesn’t get that chance. It was going to be their last season. It breaks my heart.
“I’ll never get to accomplish the goals I set in high school, but I know my high school goals aren’t the overall goals I want for my life. We just have to move on and accept it. We can’t control what happens, but we can control how we react.”
Mooneyhan’s plans for her senior season included more than just the pole vault. Pea Ridge girls track coach Heather Wade envisioned a solid one-two combination of Mooneyhan and teammate Blakelee Winn that could lead the Lady Blackhawks to their third straight Class 4A title.
In order for that to happen, Mooneyhan was needed in the sprints and the relays.
“Cassidy was working extremely hard in the offseason,” Wade said. “She does a lot of individual stuff, and we were pretty excited about this season. We had purchased her a few more pole vault poles to get on throughout the season.
“When we went into the indoor meets, I know she was looking forward to running in the 60 and the 200. In the outdoor season, she was looking forward to what the season held.”
Mooneyhan flourished during the short indoor track season as she cleared a personal-best 12’11.75” and won the pole vault at the Arkansas Invitational in January. She had a winning time of 8.11 seconds in the 60 meters at the Class 1A/4A State Indoor Meet in February, and she finished second in the 200.
She was relegated to running events in her first outdoor meet since the Y-Timing Invitational doesn’t have field events, but Mooneyhan showed promise with her performances that day in Fayetteville. She finished fourth in both the 100 (12.92) and the 200 (26.92) while competing against Class 6A runners.
Mooneyhan told Wade that if she didn’t have to run the 400 at that meet, she would run in the 4x400 relay the following week at the Springdale Invitational, as well as pole vault and possibly the 4x100. That meet, scheduled for March 13 at Har-Ber, never took place as the pandemic swept throughout the country.
“The beginning of the week was a normal week,” Mooneyhan said. “We had talked about what events we were going to run, but throughout the week you heard about things being shut down. Even colleges were shutting down, but you’re still thinking ‘that can’t happen here.’
“Then people around here started shutting down, and by 1 p.m. Thursday it was only us and two other teams at that meet. You kinda knew we weren’t going to go, and you knew something big is happening and something you never experienced before. You then started wondering how long it was going to last. It was weird.”
What Mooneyhan and Wade hoped would only last one or two weeks eventually eliminated the remainder of the season as schools continue to be under an athletic dead period. That ended the goals for Mooneyhan before she could really get started.
“I really wish we knew what was going to happen,” Wade said. “It’s going to be one of those ‘what ifs.’ Everybody is going to have a lot of ‘what ifs’ this year.”