Prize Recruit — Ella McRitchie

THE ANSWER TO the obvious question posed to Ella McRitchie makes sense.

With her choice of just about any college track program in the country, why did one of the nation’s top prep vaulters decide to cross the country from Bainbridge High near Seattle to continue her career at Harvard, a school that doesn’t even offer athletic scholarships?

Well, because she could.

“I wanted to do both track and academics, not have to take away from anything,” says McRitchie, our No. 2 prep vault All-America for ’24. “I felt this would be a good place, there are good resources for both. After track I want to go into trauma surgery and there are a lot of great opportunities here.”

The world needs geniuses and this one also happens to be a 14-4½ (4.38) vaulter who won at Nike Outdoor Nationals in June and placed 3rd (2nd prep) at the USATF U20 meet.

But there is also truth to the “not have to take away from anything” line. Harvard track is currently best known as the alma mater of Gabby Thomas, but it’s starting to build something bigger. McRitchie is part of a recruiting class that includes Norwegian high school vault champion Philip Andreas Kubon (a 17-4½/5.30 performer). McRitchie joins a stable of women that includes a 14-footer (Anastasia Retsa) and a 13-footer (Lilly Hodge).

“We’re starting to become a bigger pole vault school,” McRitchie says. “It’s nice being a start of that.”

Obviously McRitchie’s presence takes that to a new level.

“It’s a game-changer,” Harvard vault coach Brenner Abbott says. “Getting someone like Ella, of her caliber, will definitely draw attention. If she comes here and improves, which is the plan, hopefully it will open more eyes for schools like Harvard.

“It’s a cool time in our school history. Even a decade prior people thought they couldn’t have a national-level athletic experience, that they were sacrificing their athletics for their academics. Since we’ve had some good people like Gabby Thomas, some national champions, people are realizing they don’t have to sacrifice their academics for athletics.

“Ella is a good example of that, she wants to be good at both. The better athletes we get, the better athletes we’re going to get in the future because people realize…