EUGENE, Ore. — App State pole vaulter
Matthew Gray capped a season full of record-setting accomplishments with first-team All-America recognition at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Gray finished fifth among the 24 national qualifiers in the pole vault Wednesday night, clearing 5.60 meters (18 feet, 4.5 inches) at Hayward Field to earn the first-team distinction that accompanies a top-eight placement.
He is the third top-five NCAA finisher in the history of the men's track & field program at App State and the 21st athlete in the history of App State's track & field program to pick up All-America accolades, making it back-to-back years for a Mountaineer pole vaulter after Lilly Nichols received All-America Honorable Mention via a tie for 17th at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Gray, a junior who grew up about three hours from Boone in Bryson City, joined fellow top-five placers Warren Posey (second place in the 1988 triple jump) and Michael Hanks (third place in the 1987 triple jump) in elite company as Mountaineers. The last time the men's track & field program posted an All-America finish was a second-team showing in 2012, when Landon Powell, DJ Dohanic, Dennis Moore and Justin Thomas ran for a 14th-place team in the 4x100 relay.
Nebraska's Dyson Wicker won the NCAA pole vault title Wednesday by clearing 5.85m/19-2.25. He didn't clear 18-8.25 until his third attempt, then was successful on his first tries at 18-10.25, 19-0.25 and 19-2.25 to top runner-up Logan Hammer from Utah State, third-place finisher Anthony Meacham from Kansas and fourth-place Ismaila Sawaneh from Tennessee.
Gray bypassed the first two contested heights and cleared the bar on his second attempt at 18-0.5 to become one of 13 vaulters to advance. He then cleared 18-4.5 on his first attempt, leaving him as one of 10 vaulters moving forward in an attempt to clear 18-8.25.
Only four vaulters cleared that height, and Gray claimed fifth place because none of the other competitors who missed three times at 18-8.25 had been able to clear 18-4.5 on their first try like Gray had.
Gray arrived in Oregon as the No. 1 pole vaulter in the NCAA ranks, the No. 5 pole vaulter in the United States and the No. 15 pole vaulter in the world for 2026 based on his first-place clearance of 19-2 (or 5.84 meters) at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships in mid-May.
His high-level performance in Oregon capped an outdoor season in which he had six first-place finishes while representing an App State program directed by alum
Damion McLean, whose staff includes pole vault coach and two-time App State graduate
Patrick Freeman.
