It’s only fitting to pose the question to the quickest of quick learners: How does one figure out how to fling herself 14 feet in the air using nothing but athleticism and a pole?

Where do you even start?

“Baby steps,” Amy Linnen said with a laugh.

No kidding. Try taking a short pole that’s as rigid as a beam, learning a technique as complex as calculus and still, on your first attempt at pole-vaulting glory, making the short run, planting, and being unable to lift your confused body off the ground.

It’s quite common, really. No wonder so many don’t even bother with the sport.

Linnen, though, is a rare jewel in the art of pole vaulting. Before long, the Kansas University senior was using 14-foot poles with more bend, getting a faster, longer running start, and eventually, clearing bars that no one thought was possible in such a short amount of time.

It was only about 40 months after taking the sport up as a high school junior that Linnen etched her name in the NCAA Indoor track and field record book, winning the 2002 national title while a sophomore at Arizona with a record vault of 14-feet, 10 1/4 inches.

Three years and a transfer later, Linnen was the indoor champion again, this time at KU, with a vault of 14-1 1/4 last month in Fayetteville, Ark.

She’ll continue to compete through the spring for KU, including an appearance in this week’s Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium. There, she’ll vault against Stacy Dragila, an acquaintance of Linnen, a gold-medal winner at the 2000 Olympics and quite possibly the biggest name in women’s pole vaulting today.

Linnen would love to assume that throne someday — not only for herself, but because she feels she can get the word out effectively on how great pole vaulting really is.

KU senior Linnen

“She has all the attributes,” said Dragila, a 16-time U.S. champion. “She’s just a charismatic person and you don’t see many of those types in track and field. She’s both caring and competitive.”

It’s all a bit funny, though, considering the 22-year-old Linnen was well into high school before she ever considered trying the sport she now loves so much.

The Natural

So why was Linnen the chosen one? Going from newcomer to national-record holder in a little more than three years isn’t exactly normal.

The answer comes from all directions. She’s a natural athlete with a long, lean body that seems made for the sport. She’s convinced that reaching a goal means only to shoot for a higher one. And, at the beginning, she was really, really patient.

“There’s definitely a progression to it,” Linnen said. “You’re not going to automatically jump off the ground and clear a bar on the first try.”

But for Linnen, it still came much quicker than it does for most. The Westhampton Beach, N.Y., native participated in gymnastics for years, but her body wasn’t cooperating, sprouting up close to 6-feet and essentially kicking her out of the sport for having too much height.

“I just wasn’t efficient anymore,” she said.

She finally stopped growing at around 5-10, and her high school sweetheart convinced her to try track and field, instead. The thought of running for fun sickened her, so instead, she grabbed a pole and started learning the skill that eventually would make her one of the most promising up-and-comers in America.

In just two short years at Mt. Sinai High, she established herself as one of the best prep vaulters in the nation. It sent her across the country to Arizona, where she accepted a scholarship to vault under vertical jumps coach Tom Hays.

The bond was instant.

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“I don’t know if she knows this, but her first practice, she was having trouble getting up,” Hays said. “We made some really quick adjustments, so she gained a lot of trust and confidence really quickly in me.

“Through the years, if we made some quick adjustments, her confidence got real high. The trust level keeps going up and up, and that’s the big thing.”

Finding Lawrence

A pole-vaulting myth: You must be a good gymnast to be a good pole vaulter.

Not so, says Hays. It certainly helps, and Linnen’s history with gymnastics gives her the body awareness to be able to slither over a bar with unmatched precision.

But that’s not why she’s one of the best collegiate vaulters in America.

“You have to be an athlete first, and be able to run and sprint, too,” Hays said. “And, whatever mistakes she makes, she can get away with them because she’s tall.”

Linnen used all of the positives to her advantage. After establishing herself by clearing elite heights, winning a national championship and setting an NCAA and U.S. Junior record under the coaching of Hays, Linnen’s mentor left Arizona behind and went to Johnson County Community College, closer to his hometown of McLouth.

Linnen, feeling empty without him, followed.

“I felt at home with him,” Linnen said. “I developed a relationship at Arizona with coach Hays. When he left, I wasn’t the same without him.”

Linnen spent the spring of 2004 training at JCCC but not taking any classes. She spent the fall in Arkansas training as an unattached athlete, too. She was all set to enroll at Arkansas, but the Southeastern Conference wouldn’t accept a senior transfer, so she couldn’t use her final year of eligibility vaulting for the Razorbacks.

That’s when Kansas entered the picture. Last fall, Hays accepted a job as vertical jumps coach at KU, where he graduated in 1989. Linnen soon followed, enrolling at Kansas in January with the blessing of a less-strict Big 12 Conference rule regarding senior transfers. She began competing immediately, winning the Big 12 and NCAA Indoor titles by March.

Weather-wise, it wasn’t sunny Arizona. But with Hays watching over her, Lawrence was just what Linnen needed to complete her college career.

“My main concern (out of high school) was that I wanted to go somewhere warm,” Linnen said. “But I also knew that if I wanted to succeed in pole vaulting, I had to go somewhere where I felt comfortable with the coach.”

What’s next?

Linnen has more goals in her mental Rolodex than she has time to figure out what they all are. She never has won an outdoor title. That’d be nice. She’d love to put on a good show for the hometown crowd — and her parents, who are flying in from New York — at this week’s Kansas Relays.

In the future, she wants to get sponsored so she can continue doing what she loves. A trip to the Olympics is the dream of every track and field athlete from Kansas to Kenya.

The first goal that popped into Linnen’s head, though, was to slip over a magical bar that few women have ever cleared. She’s come within two inches.

“Fifteen feet,” she says, a smile escaping her. “That would definitely make me a happy camper.”

It’s quite a different Amy Linnen today from when she was taking those wobbly baby steps not all that long ago. But sometimes, the planets of athleticism, opportunity and hard work can align and spit out a champion in a short amount of time.

“She’s been in athletics all of her life,” Hays said, “and this just kind of fits her perfectly.”