By Dave Kane
Heading into the 2025 track and field season, the table appeared set for Chatham Glenwood High School senior Reese Wolfe. The defending Class 3A girls state pole vault champion already had signed to compete for NCAA Division I South Florida, and with the college-decision pressure off, she could have fun shooting for new personal-best vaults — perhaps 13 feet 6 or even 14 feet.
But when Wolfe cleared a modest (but state-qualifying) 10-6 at last week’s Bloomington Sectional, she couldn’t have been happier.
When your senior season is almost taken away, simply competing again is its own reward.
“I’ve found a new gratefulness,” said Wolfe, who was sidelined most of this season due to a puzzling neurological disorder.
“Just to go out and compete and have a body to do it is great. Before, I put pressure on myself. But I should also be having fun. These seven weeks (on the sidelines) have meant a lot because I’ve learned that I’m proud of being an athlete but that’s not the whole of who I am.”
After a season marked by uncertainty and frustration, Wolfe had to reset her goals. Afterwinning state last year, she simply wanted to finish her high school career at the Girls State Track and Field Meet slated this Friday and Saturday in Charleston.
Mission accomplished. Competing for the first time since indoor state in late March, she vaulted just once in last Wednesday’s Bloomington Sectional. She made 10-6, and securing a state berth was all Wolfe wanted.
She’d love to be among the top 16 vaulters in Friday’s prelims (out of 48 total) to advance to Saturday. It took 11-1 3/4 to do that last year.
“I really don’t know what I expect to do,” Wolfe said of her state outlook. “But I hope to make finals, which sounds crazy after winning state last year. I just want to have a good state experience. Just having fun doing it, that’s what I need right now.”
‘I Didn’t Feel Right’
A seven-week layoff certainly wasn’t on Wolfe’s radar back in March. Competing in the Prep Top Times Indoor Classic at Illinois Wesleyan University, Wolfe experienced dizziness, vision problems and general disorientation.
“She’d been sick the week before, and they thought it might be an inner-ear thing causing her to be discombobulated,” said Glenwood head coach Mike Garber. “When she vaulted at the Top Times, she had trouble getting up off the mat, trouble getting her balance.
“She’d get off the mat, then lay on the floor trying to get through the dizziness. Then she’d vault again.”
Wolfe settled for second place, clearing a little over 11 feet. She wouldn’t compete again until last Wednesday’s sectional — ironically, back in Bloomington.
“I went to the ER before indoor state,” she said. “They thought it was vertigo and there was nothing to worry about, that it would go away in a week. But I still didn’t feel right.”
She also experienced numbness on the left side of her body. Had she suffered a stroke?
“They sent me to the ER again, but they only diagnosed it as a headache,” Wolfe said. “Then they gave us some options to see certain specialists. But they said, ‘Let’s hold off on any activity until we do some MRIs.’”
“Activity” included not just pole vaulting, but school.
“They said if there was something wrong with my brain, it could make it worse by overuse,” Wolfe said. “I was basically bedridden for a week. No phone or anything. I couldn’t do school work or anything else interesting.”
Holding Out Hope
Garber said he tried to be as supportive as possible, refusing to let shutting things down for the season enter the conversation. But he also focused on Wolfe as a person and not just as a major part of the team.
“She was one of our captains and she couldn’t even come to practice,” Garber said. “I didn’t want to keep asking, ‘How are you feeling?’ I value the kids as individuals far more than outcomes at meets.
“She was having a rough time. I got the sense she felt like she was letting the team down. She wanted to be there to at least cheer on her teammates. But until she was diagnosed, I never wanted to make it sound like everything was over. We just tried to plan week by week.”
Another worry for Wolfe during her layoff: What would her future coaches at South Florida say? But they put her mind at ease.
“The South Florida coaches were very supportive,” she said. “They said, ‘Just try to get healthy. If you’re still having problems, we’ll try to figure it out down here.’ That was a huge relief.”
As the weeks passed, the goal became competing in the sectional — the doorway to state. Along the way, a new diagnosis emerged.
A hemiplegic migraine is not a migraine headache in the usual sense. But it’s characterized by several symptoms Wolfe was experiencing.
She’s been taking medication and also has been helped with physical therapy. Even though she still experiences some residual effects, she’s “definitely gotten a lot better.”
But would she be able to compete at sectionals? Wolfe got her answer just two days before the meet.
“I had another MRI done on May 9, a Friday,” she said. “We got the results back on Monday, and they said I wouldn’t risk any permanent damage by vaulting.”
Wolfe belongs to the Bloomington-based Flying Dragons pole vaulting club, and she traveled there on Tuesday, May 13. There, she got a shot of confidence by solidly clearing the 10-6 needed to qualify for state.
Back at Bloomington High the next night, she cleared it again at the sectional despite being extremely sore. She was out of shape after being sidelined for so long.
“It was a pretty quick turnaround,” she said of the three-day whirlwind. “I’m still trying to get back in shape. You lose a lot of muscle mass when you can’t work out for seven weeks. My body wasn’t used to (vaulting), and everything hurt.
“I’m trying to get back into athlete mode.”
Welcome Back
Garber said Wolfe’s comeback included an emotional moment when she came to practice at Glenwood early last week.
“We told the girls Reese was going to get to vault again,” Garber said. “It sparked such a celebration. I’ve never heard a louder noise from a group of girls. They went crazy. There were so many hugs.
“They understood what she went through. They knew how much she loved it and missed it.”
Said Wolfe: “It was so exciting. I was waiting for that moment all season. Knowing my teammates were there for me, they made me cry. I was bawling.”
The only thing that would have made it better, Wolfe said, was if fellow GHS senior and three-time state champion sprinter Katelyn Lehnen could get back on the track for the Titans. But Lehnen’s season was taken away by a knee injury suffered late in the basketball season.
Lehnen will come back, but not until she’s at the University of Illinois.
“It’s hard to watch people do what they love, then want to do it so badly but they can’t,” Wolfe said of Lehnen. “I’m so grateful I can finish the season, and I’m praying Katelyn will come back in college.
“All of it has given me a new appreciation.”
