CB West grad Chloe Timberg made history as Rutgers’ pole vault national champion. Next up? Olympic trials.

Every day for Chloe Timberg, a Doylestown native and Central Bucks West grad, is a daily deposit, she says. Timberg, a standout pole vaulter in high school, takes pride in being disciplined and consistent in her craft — even when the results don’t turn in her favor.

Some days are harder than others. The Rutgers junior felt frustrated after placing third in the pole vault at the NCAA indoor track and field championships in March with a 14-foot, 7¼-inch jump. It was her first podium placement on the national stage, but she had yet to clear 15 feet, and the success she had in practice wasn’t always translating to meets.

The disappointment lingered, but Timberg went back to focusing on those daily deposits. With her pole vault coach, Carl Porambo, guiding her to make the necessary day-by-day incremental changes, a trip last week to the NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene, Ore., put Timberg in rarefied air.

She became the first woman in Rutgers history to capture an NCAA track and field title after winning Thursday’s pole vault final, clearing the bar at 15-5½, her personal best — and a meet record. She became the Scarlet Knights’ first track and field national champion in 41 years.

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“I think one of the biggest feelings that I’ve had in the past couple days was just thinking about every single coach that has worked with me, every single athletic director that stood behind me, just anybody who’s helped me along this journey,” Timberg said in a recent interview with The Inquirer. “And I’ll be the first to admit that I was a little bit surprised with myself; I knew I was capable of higher heights than the 4.60-[meter] mark that I had jumped a little bit earlier, but to jump 4.71 is a completely different piece in itself.”

Said Porambo: “I had tears. She was just so excited, and she came over, we hugged, and said, ‘It’s paying off. All the work, it’s paying off.’

“And then we went for a bigger mark,” he added, laughing.

Timberg is no stranger to success in her sport. A decorated high school pole vaulter in Pennsylvania, Timberg claimed the outdoor (14-2¼) and indoor (13-10) state records in 2021. The indoor mark stood until Mount St. Joseph’s Veronica Vacca broke it earlier this year.

After Timberg’s indoor campaign culminated with a podium finish, she hit a personal milestone at the Penn Relays in April. With her first 15-foot clearance, Timberg not only took the title at Franklin Field, clearing 15-1, but she became an automatic qualifier for the U.S. Olympic trials later this month.

“I was so incredibly excited because I think that had been one of my really, really longtime goals was to just be over 15 feet,” Timberg said. “[I wanted] to be able to jump that height and then use that as momentum as we headed toward nationals and now the [Olympic] trials.”

Said Porambo: “The Penn Relays is not, I’ll emphasize, not a place you go to jump high. If you talk to any pole vaulter [and ask them], ‘If you want to not go somewhere, where would it be? They’d be like, ‘Penn Relays.’

“For her to do what she did in that weather, in that swirling wind … this is not the place where you’re going to showcase your stuff,” he continued. “So when she put up that mark, everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, if she can do that there, God forbid [when] she’s actually somewhere where there’s good conditions.’”

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Before last week’s NCAA meet, Timberg placed second at the Big Ten outdoor championships in May and finished her conference campaign as the 2024 Big Ten field athlete of the year.

Her weekend of competing didn’t stop in Eugene. Timberg and Porambo made the trip from Oregon to Olmsted Falls, Ohio, to compete in the Katie Moon Pole Vault Classic on Saturday. The event, named after the 2020 Olympic pole vault champion and 2022 and 2023 World Championships gold medalist, is hosted by Dayton, her alma mater. Timberg and Moon were among nine of the top U.S. pole vaulters in an event that featured former Olympians and national champions.

Moon ended up winning, clearing 15-6¼, but Timberg, who spent most of the day traveling ahead of the event, finished third.

“For the longest time, they’ve kind of been these people that I’ve seen here and there on Instagram, and I’ve really looked up to and I’ve been able to follow along on their journey,” Timberg said. “I’ve always wanted to be in their shoes; now I am there with them, and it was just a great opportunity to compete with some really just amazing women.”

Added Porambo: “We were there just to go through the experience, not to actually win, but the fact that we made the podium, it [was] just humbling. There [were] 11 people there, the other eight people that she beat, that was quite significant, to say the least, and it set the tone.”

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The U.S. women’s pole vault Olympic trials return to Hayward Field in Eugene on June 28 and 30.

The familiarity with the venue gives her an advantage, Porambo says, but right now, they’re focusing on what has gotten Timberg to this point.

“It’s not the time to make huge changes in your training or to try something new,” Timberg said. “You lock into exactly what you’ve been doing, and you do it again and again and again, and you try and just get as comfortable as you can with it.”

Said Porambo: “[The Summer Games in] Paris is really an early opportunity for her. She’s going to peak in 2028 when we’re in L.A. And for us to be blessed to make a top-four finish or better this time around, that’s going to be surreal for everybody.”